Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I supported the commitment to develop a new housing support scheme to replace the rent supplement and remove the poverty traps. That scheme makes a lot of sense but nobody expected for a moment that, by introducing it, the Government would at the same time deem people to have their housing needs met, such that people would effectively lose their places on the housing waiting list. It should be a good and positive scheme to remove poverty traps and enable people in the private rented sector, with the support of the Government, to take up work and not lose rent support euro for euro. What should be a very good scheme, however, will turn out to be a very bad one for social policy reasons, but also a very unpopular one because people will not be prepared to give up their positions on a council housing list, having been waiting patiently for perhaps five to ten years. This is no substitute for council housing. As I stated, one of the biggest problems with this proposal is that a scheme that should have been positive and attractive to people will not be attractive to them because of the effect on their position on the housing waiting list.

The Minister of State made statements here tonight but they are worth nothing if they are not set down in legislation. What she said tonight is not in the Bill. She has not produced any statutory instruments to establish what she proposes to do.

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