Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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It would probably be fair to say that we very much need rightsizing. Many older people have come to me who live in large three or four-bedroom houses that are way too large for them, but unfortunately they are houses they have built, financed themselves and paid off their mortgages on. If they go to the local authority, they are not deemed eligible for social housing supports because they own a house, but similarly, in Longford, they cannot buy a one or two-bedroom house. The Department of housing needs to be dynamic and look out to and reach out to those people to create a mechanism where we can swap and give them a local authority house in lieu of their house. There obviously has to be some degree of financial contribution. Have the witnesses seen a scheme like that work anywhere with some degree of success?