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

What does the Minister mean? Persons in receipt of social welfare payments must find their own place to live and then have to try to claim a portion of the rent through rent supplement. The Minister used the words, “We provide homes for people.” The Department does not provide homes in the private rented sector for persons in receipt of rent supplement. The Minister knows of people in Dublin West who have gone to highest person in her office who could not find homes. There are no homes to be found for those in receipt of rent supplement. The Minister has no greater ability than anyone else to find housing. People have to source their own accommodation and then make a claim. It is incredible what the Minister has just claimed.

The reason the Government must undertake the largest housing programme in a generation is it did not build houses for five years and now we have the worst housing emergency for more than a generation. The Government has not moved away from reliance on the private rental sector. Up to two thirds of the homes envisaged in its new housing strategy will be provided by the so-called private sector. Up to 30,000 units will be built by councils, while the other 70,000 will be sourced from landlords, under the rental accommodation scheme and the housing assistance payment scheme.

The Minister has just told blatant lies about what the Government is planning for housing. I do not know in what parallel universe she lives.

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