Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

This section of the Bill is totally Dickensian. The implication is that if one is poor, some kind of a stick is needed to get one to pay up. As we know, the same does not apply to the wealthy. I noted at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government today that it appears a mandatory direct deduction facility is being introduced for HAP as well and not just for rent arrears.

I oppose the measure and do not agree with trying to amend this in any way. It is an absolute cheek to dip into people's social welfare payments to pay rent. This seems to be the Government's latest response if people cannot pay. It has introduced deduction at source for the property tax, but it seems only for the poorest in society.

Others have said why people get into arrears. People are in arrears because they are suffering from six years of austerity. These people are at the absolute margins of society. The largest single group in poverty in this country is lone parents. Most of the people on the councils' waiting lists and in council housing are lone parents.

A sure-fire way of landing in poverty is to rear a child on one's own. That is why people struggle with rent. Fuel has been mentioned also. Disputes should be also part of the equation. A lot of council tenants in our council area had pyrite problems in their homes. Does the Minister of State consider it right that they had to pay their council rent all through the years of waiting for the problem to be fixed? I do not. A person in private rented accommodation would not have to do so. The people concerned did pay the rent but they would have been justified in withholding it.

The key point is that we should not under any circumstances allow such an infringement of people’s civil liberties, namely, that their incomes could be deducted to pay a bill. It is redolent of Big Brother that the local authority and the Department of Social Protection can connive and conspire in that way. I contrast the approach to the treatment given to Denis O’Brien that was publicised last week. He was struggling with his debts and the bank wrote them off to the tune of €300 million. While council tenants will have their deductions taken away from them, the rich at the very top of society escape scot free, as they normally do. The proposal is an outrageous infringement of civil liberties. I am surprised that it is legal for a person to have his or her income cut to pay a bill. I do not know if the system could be challenged on that basis. It is completely wrong because it is punishing the poor for being poor.

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