Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the points that have been made so eloquently by colleagues on section 37. I have been dealing with people in RAS tenancies for eight or nine years. They would have been on the housing list for 12 or 14 years. The Minister of State knows well that the RAS has completely collapsed in Dublin and does not really exist anymore. Nobody is opting for it and no landlord is interested in it. Tenants are very wary of it. The reason they are wary is that they have no security of tenure. Even after seven, eight or nine years in a district, and with children going to a particular school and with family arrangements being made on the basis of a long-term tenancy, people still expect to be allocated a local authority home, be it in the jurisdiction of Dublin City Council or, in my case, Fingal County Council. That is what tenants are aiming for. It would be very retrograde step if, at the wave of a wand, the 78,000 people passing from rent supplement to HAP were now deemed to be housed. Our experience as representatives is directly the opposite because of the insecurity and uncertainty that arise. As I stated earlier, children and parents both endure unacceptable stress and tension.

On Committee Stage, colleagues raised this matter extensively. I urge the Minister of State to simply accept the amendment and proceed on that basis. We are still thinking of the raft of reports we have had. We should have been doing what I suggest three to six years ago in regard to social housing. People are still thinking about a way forward to allow us to meet the urgent needs of the 90,000 families on the social housing list. However, this sleight of hand, as a colleague called it, is not a solution.

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