Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I did not suggest these problems were caused solely by the current Government.

This provision is a step too far and the Minister of State should take the opportunity to withdraw it. I speak regularly to officials in Dublin City Council's rents section and they have been very accommodating of people who get into rent difficulties. Arrangements are made to assist them and when people break those agreements, the council will help them again. It is very rare that people are evicted for non-payment of rent because local authority officials understand the circumstances which render people dependent on this type of assistance. They are the same people who seem set to end up dependent on the HAP scheme because of the failure of the State to provide adequate social housing. Under the new scheme, however, they will not have Dublin City Council to fall back on because the money will be taken at source and they will end up in arrears somewhere else. We have already seen the magnitude of arrears to electricity and gas suppliers. How many people have been cut off in the past two to three years? These numbers are a reflection of the type of crisis and chaos in which people are finding themselves. Many of these are the same people from whom rent payments will be deducted on a weekly basis under these provisions.

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