Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The housing assistance payment is a name-change for rent supplement which will now be paid out by the local authorities instead of the Department of Social Protection. That rent subsidy is costing a fortune.

I am not arguing that people should not get it. People should do so in the short term, but it was not designed to be a long-term measure. If we had a housing programme then building workers could go back to work, the State would receive PAYE, income tax, universal social charge and PRSI and money spent on rent supplement would be saved. The State would receive in VAT 13.5% of the price of all materials used in the construction of houses. Houses can be built cheaply at present. Local authorities would obtain assets from which they can earn rent for years and then sell on.

I understand the position with regard to off-balance sheet issues and that money cannot be pulled out of the air, but there are facilities through the European Investment Bank and the strategic investment fund, which was the National Pension Reserve Fund. There is also the option of establishing trusts to draw down money and establish funding through housing bonds. This has been done in other countries, including capitalist Britain, so there should not be an ideological problem for the man from Fine Gael sitting beside the Minister of State. He cannot have a problem with it if the British Tories allow it to happen in England. As the Minister of State and a representative of the Labour Party I ask the Minister of State to move on this issue because there is a crucial problem. If one walks around the streets of Dublin in the evening or early morning one falls over people sleeping in doorways. The same problem does not exist in parts of the country outside the city, but County Laois and other midland counties have a huge problem with housing waiting lists. Will the Minister of State consider this as a matter of urgency and address it? She stated she is exploring it but she needs to do more than that. People are homeless and we need to find solutions.

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