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

The senior Minister spoke about the large number of people who, thankfully, are returning to work. One of the key issues facing society is that many of those returning to work are joining the working poor and returning to short-term contracts and low paid work. I am not making this up. The figures show that many of the jobs being created pay lower wages than was previously the case. The proof is the fact that the Department had to increase the funding available for family income supplement. While it is positive that the State is stepping in to supplement incomes, that such a large number of people in employment will be dependent on the family income supplement is a negative development. This increase in funding for family income supplement is a recognition that wages are low in many cases and many employees are on part-time and, in some cases, zero hour contracts.

It is accepted that social welfare payments are the minimum required for people to survive, yet many people cannot survive on these payments. I listed a range of cuts introduced since 2008, all of which have impacted on those in receipt of social welfare payments and many workers. In my previous contribution, I also referred to the cut in funding for exceptional needs payments. The equivalent of €30 million has disappeared from that allocation on the basis that eligibility for these types of payment has been tightened to such a degree that most of those who were able to avail of a payment in the past can no longer do so.

Before addressing the amendments on child poverty and lone parents, the issue of rent supplement was raised in the context of poverty. Every Deputy is aware of cases involving people who are in receipt of rent supplement and must pay a top-up to their landlord over and above the sum they are required to pay as part of the rent allowance conditions.

In the past the Minister denied it happened because I suggested it was the landlords who were operating illegally. There was a reason. The Department turned a blind eye to it because there was no way it could house so many people, even on the old scale rent supplement rates of two or three years ago, without allowing people to use some of their funding. Let us not forget that the social welfare payment is the minimum amount required to survive. People were taking some of that and topping up payments to landlords who then did not declare it and, therefore, were not fully tax compliant.

The cap on rent allowance means one cannot rent a flat or house in the city for a monthly rent of over €950. The vast majority of people who are renting at that figure are also topping up their payments, and I can guarantee the rates have increased because the average rent for a three bedroom house in my area has jumped from €1,200 two years ago to €1,400 today. That means anybody in receipt of rent allowance who has had to sign a new lease in recent months has quite a brilliant landlord or is making an under-the-counter payment. That is the only way people are managing to keep a roof over their heads.

That does not take into account all of the families who are trying to make ends meet. It also does not take into account the fact that some of those who are not able to avail of rent allowance are families who are then put up by homeless agencies in bed and breakfast, hotel or some type of hostel accommodation. Thankfully, there is some availability. We can debate the suitability of many such situations, but this is not the time nor the place to do so.

We had a debate a number of weeks ago on homelessness, and we may have one next week. Some of those living on the streets are there because of the conditions and chaos in some hostel accommodation, which are such that they would prefer to sleep on the streets. That is an indictment of the quality and standards of such accommodation. It is not suitable for families, people in recovery or those who are severely depressed. We need to address these issues.

Recently, many people who were in receipt of rent allowance but could not renew their leases and were squeezed out, because their landlords decided to sell or refurbish in order to make more money, have ended up in homeless accommodation. Families, often with young children, are affected. Children may be enrolled in schools in specific locations. Some families have been housed in airport hotels. I know of one such family who have been living in an airport hotel for a number of months. The mother had to gather her belongings on a Friday morning and check with reception whether she could stay for the weekend. She had a car and her tax was still in date, but the last time I spoke to her it was about to expire and she had no money to pay for it. She had to drive from the hotel to the west of the city to bring her children to school. There was no extra funding-----

See this speech in context