Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There were no answers in the Minister of State's response for the two people I mentioned, or to be honest for the huge number who are being forced into or threatened with homelessness every week. The Government does not seem to grasp how bad this problem is and how quickly it is worsening.

I spoke with Peter McVerry a couple of weeks ago and he said clearly that the rent cap reductions were a disaster. He said they were driving people into homelessness and that emergency measures were needed to provide tens of thousands, not a few hundred, council houses. At the Focus Point conference this week, it was stated that only 1.2% of all the available private, rental accommodation in Dublin is within the rent caps. The policy is a joke and cannot work. The cap is driving people into homelessness. As Cathal Morgan said, this does not affect just the traditional categories, of people with drug addiction or mental health problems. People, as a direct result of not being able to pay the rents demanded, are being driven into homelessness. What does the Minister of State propose to do about this?

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