Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I could talk about social housing and the poverty trap of rent allowance. Rent allowance costs the Government €400 million per year and I do not need to tell the parties opposite that when a person receives rent allowance his or her right to work is heavily restricted. If one is on social welfare one is put into a poverty trap and a property trap. One cannot work because one loses euro for euro, and because of this one will never be able to buy one's own home, not even a social house rented from one's local authority. People on rent supplement face insecurity as tenants. The majority of them are in buildings that have never been inspected for basic facilities and safety. Extra rent is unofficially gouged out of them by landlords on a widespread scale. If they begin to earn anything they are immediately cut off from rent supplement. This would never have happened if Ministers cared about disadvantaged families and the poverty traps they face. This is not a problem for just a few families. Some 60,000 households receive rent supplement, which costs the taxpayer €400 million per year, and that goes straight into the pockets of our new landlord class.

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