Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Today we met officials from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Department of Social Protection who confirmed in no uncertain terms that anyone who avails of HAP will be removed from the housing list. The Minister of State hesitated to say this but the officials confirmed it today. This will take many people off the housing list if they avail of HAP. The same happened when the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, was introduced in 2011. Anyone who joined the scheme was taken off the housing list.

There will be uproar. The figure of almost 90,000 on the housing waiting list will be massaged. This is not adequate housing. It is unstable and the type of accommodation and its location will not be fit for purpose. In many cases that will be out of people’s control. The other problem is that they will have to source it themselves, whereas the local authorities should have some powers. What will happen in the Departments, where there is a recruitment embargo? Will that be lifted? It will cost money to move people about. We need to review the figures after six months and monitor this on an ongoing basis to see how many are taken off the homeless list and how many off the housing list. That is the point of Deputy Murphy’s amendment, to give us a picture before the scheme goes out of control. It is very important to include a provision to monitor this scheme.

See this speech in context