Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 31 January 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Role of Chairperson of Housing Agency and Related Matters: Discussion

1:30 pm

Mr. Conor Skehan:

I am holding them up generally. I have blacked out anything that could identify anybody. I will make these available to the clerk to make sure this is clear. This is not in any particular order.

One strand of evidence is social media. Through another business I have I am in the business of watching and seeing what takes place on social media. We relatively commonly come across group chats where people are sharing information with each other about how to improve their condition. Here is a sample in which people are talking about what they can do or cannot do to get into housing. The exact quote is: "Off course u are it's up to urself", meaning get oneself into the list. This woman who claims in this note to be in emergency accommodation says, "Its hard but it b worth it im on it with 3 kids an by god its hard but ill stick.it out too get my forever home u shud strongly think about it".

I now quote from meeting minutes from Fingal County Council on Tuesday, 16 January item No. 5 on housing numbers. Is this okay? This is an official record.