Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I concur with Deputy Nulty's comments about top-up payments. I have raised this issue with the Minister on a number of occasions and she has denied that her Department has any information that this is happening. If she talked to the groups she mentioned earlier, such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Focus Ireland or Threshold, they would attest to a widespread practice of top-up payments that has been there for years and is getting worse. What steps will be taken to address that?

The bedsit issue is key, and I concur with Deputy Wallace's comments. When will the transfer from the Department of Social Protection to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government happen? Then we will then be dealing with a different Department. Some people are saying that RAS is becoming an unmitigated disaster in the Dublin City Council area because landlords are withdrawing from it and the local authority cannot find enough properties to facilitate it. There is a crisis not just in social housing but for those renting privately who avail of rent supplement. I hope the Minister will be able to address those issues which need to be addressed urgently before she ends up with far more people living on the streets, and, if there is another winter similar to the previous one, dying on the streets.

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