Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

As we are all aware, rents are absolutely skyrocketing throughout the country, particularly in Dublin and the big urban centres. The rent caps are woefully inadequate to meet rising rent costs. We all know the consequences. This is leading people into homelessness and dire circumstances. There are many associated issues, including the provision of social housing, the possibility of rent controls, etc. but I have no wish to go into that now. By the way, I thank the Minister of State for intervening in a case I raised last week. The person in question got the letter.

We need an instruction to go to community welfare officers throughout the country pending any wider review of rent caps to the effect that if someone comes in and explains that he is going to become homeless unless the CWO raises the rent cap to the level of rents in the area, then the community welfare officer should not decide that the cap applies and explain that there is nothing he can do. Instead, the officer should consult the daft.iewebsite and agree that a given rent is reasonable and agree to a rent cap at that given level. Otherwise the homelessness crisis will continue.

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