Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree. This is a serious problem.

The issue of staffing cannot be viewed one dimensionally. Workforce planning is required to identify who will deliver the housing assistance payment scheme. Limerick City Council is supposed to have developed a business plan for this scheme. When I asked who was drawing up the plan, I was informed that it is not yet complete. As such, we do not yet know what is the full business case for the scheme. We were informed that staff in Limerick City Council were transferred from the rental accommodation scheme to the housing assistance payment scheme. Such an approach would not work in County Kildare as it only has one member of staff dealing with the rental accommodation scheme. Moreover, the individual in question is engaged full-time in dealing with landlords. The council does not have any capacity to deal with new cases under the scheme. When a scheme that is good in theory faces many impediments in practice, one must ask how it will help address the current abysmal circumstances.

I acknowledge the recent announcement by the Minister of State that funding has been provided to allow Dublin City Council to purchase a small number of houses. More funding is required for other local authorities in areas which face exactly the same pressure. It takes time to build houses, however. If, for example, the Minister were to announce a major house building programme today, not one house would be occupied by 2016 when the next general election is due.

We are talking about a big lead-in time. Up to €340 million is spent on rent supplement alone with more moneys spent on the rental accommodation scheme and long-term leasing. These moneys need to be replaced by a more normal funding arrangement in time.

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