Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It used to be the case that having a steady income from work was a preventative against becoming homeless. That is no longer the case. In the past five days, I have had four people present to me who are in very good full-time jobs. Three of them will not qualify for social housing because they are over the income limit. Cork City Council's income threshold for an individual is €40,000, which is higher than the threshold of a lot of local authorities. Those three people will not qualify for social housing and two of them will not even qualify for the cost-rental backstop because their salary is over €53,000. When the Minister increased local authority thresholds by €5,000, he did not also increase the backstop. Now we have people earning over €53,000 a year who will become homeless in September or October. In the past, a job was always a shield against homelessness. I have spoken to people who are distraught. Never in their life, with the jobs they are in and the families they have, did they think they would be in this situation. Compared with five years ago, how much of an increase has Mr. Shinnors seen in the number of homeless people who are in work? What percentage of an increase has there been? It is fine if Mr. Shinnors does not have the figures today. This is an issue we need to look at as part of an examination of the causes and consequences of homelessness.