Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If the Taoiseach had bothered to talk to the Simon Community, its representatives would have told him what he could do immediately. That body says it is extremely disappointed by the failure of the Government to address rent supplement levels in budget 2015. It stated:

Rent supplement levels must be increased across the country as a matter of urgency. They are too low when compared to market rents ...

Is the Taoiseach listening? I ask Deputy Varadkar to listen also.

[T]his is causing homelessness and preventing people from leaving homelessness.

I am not saying this; the people on the frontier are. What the Government did to rent supplement caused and accelerated the crisis in terms of families having to be put up in emergency accommodation in hotels, rooms and apartments and going out to the airport to heat themselves. The Government took its eye off the ball on this. There was no urgency or sense of emergency. Other things have mattered to the Government in terms of politicking, electoral issues and all that kind of stuff, but this is a crisis that everyone wants resolved.

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