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

There were figures in The Irish Timesa few days ago on how bad the situation is in Dublin. Dublin is a disaster but the situation in Dún Laoghaire is much worse. Dún Laoghaire had over 4,000 people on the list but 1,000 have joined it in a year so the list will now number 5,200. There has been a 20% increase in the number of people on the list in one year. This is due to rising rents. It is just a disaster; I cannot overstate it. I have no choice but to monitor it and to engage with the services every week. I telephone the people at Threshold but they are at their wits' end and I get the same rubbish from the local community welfare officer.

If there is a problem with landlords jacking up rents, which there is, we need rent controls. In the meantime, the Minister must not allow the person who needs a roof over their head to be piggy in the middle in the Minister's battle with the landlords. We must sort out rent control and the issue of the supply of affordable housing. The Minister must issue a stern instruction to community welfare officers to approve rent allowance to the level that is necessary to get somebody into a home, rather than to go into homeless services.

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