Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

It is ironic that we are discussing a Bill which includes a proposal to make it easier for local authorities to evict people, making them homeless, when we should be examining how to get people into houses. This is the social concern in Irish society and it has only recently started to trickle into the media that we have a crisis with people sleeping in their cars with their children or living in hostels, getting their children up in the morning and bringing them to school in the outer suburbs of this city and the greater Dublin area. In that sense, the debate is lop-sided. When we examine provisions to make it easier to remove people from housing, we must acknowledge one of the key reasons people are leaving housing is the policies being pursued by the Government regarding inadequate rent supplement, which will lead to higher levels of homelessness.

While I welcome the provisions in the Bill for the establishment of the housing assistance programme, HAP, which will bring it under the remit of the local authorities, it is long overdue. If we are to avert the crisis we must increase the levels of rent supplement available to people. It is ironic that this morning the Taoiseach spoke to Deputies on this side of the House about conjuring up houses overnight and said a construction proposal will take time to implement. In view of this, we are dealing with the existing housing stock. The rent assistance being given is inadequate and the only way to release the pressure valve now is to increase rent supplement or HAP, whatever it is called. It must be done. Despite yesterday's media reports that Dublin rents had increased by 14% since January, the State and the Department are capping rent payment at a ridiculous level, leaving more people homeless.

It is strange that we are dealing with local authority stock when the county councils have more power to deal with tenants than many private landlords. I recently had responses from the Minister regarding the Private Residential Tenancies Board, PRTB, and how we deal with unwelcome tenants in private housing. The Minister's response was that nothing could be done and that the PRTB existed. While we are not addressing legislation for the private market, we are doing so for the local authorities which have considerable powers.

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