Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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What does that say about the Department? I will come back to my original point. HAP was designed to shove people into private rented accommodation. There have been no reviews of rent payments. There is a scandalous inspection regime. No information has been gathered on the number of tenants paying top-ups or on the value of these payments. Given the rates, any income or support a person who has been in receipt of HAP since its inception receives is totally wiped out because of the rent subsidy. Do not give me Housing for All. We are on the brink of spending €1 billion in public money on private rent subsidies and, up to now, the Department has had no intention of implementing a diligent inspection regime despite the amount of public money being spent. It could not give a toss as to whether people in receipt of HAP were paying top-up payments. It did not gather that information. It has no idea how many were forced to pay top-ups. It just turned a blind eye to the matter. It does not know how much these top-ups are costing people.