Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Deputy Burton made the point yesterday that the people in the new poverty trap are those who are forced into private rented accommodation. Our social housing problem is now forced into private rented accommodation, which is accommodation driven by tax reliefs and tax incentives. Those people are on housing rental supplement but if they try to go back into the workforce, either they lose that supplement or else it is greatly abated. This creates the new modern poverty trap. People who want to get out of that accommodation, into work and back to education are not being facilitated by this Government. This is one major defect in yesterday's budget which ought to be addressed in the Finance Bill.

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