Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

My experience in Galway is that local authorities are advising people, because there is so little social housing available, to apply for the long-term leasing scheme or the rental accommodation scheme. I dealt with a case recently in which a young blind woman was seeking a house with a garden for her guide dog but none of the available local authority houses was suitable. The scheme is capped at a certain level, as specified by the Department, for single people, couples and families. What I am finding, however, is that individuals are going back and doing separate deals with landlords whereby they agree to pay an additional €200 per month, for example, out of their own resources in order to secure a property. This is probably outside the remit of the Bill but I ask the Minister of State to consider how it might be dealt with in other legislation. It is very unfair that people are obliged to pay money out of their own pockets, unknown to the local authorities, via side deals with landlords. We must ensure there is adequate funding available to enable people to rent a house on the open market. There is also an issue of staffing in that local authorities do not have sufficient personnel to deal with the volume of applications. Will the Minister of State comment on these issues?

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