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

Yes. What people who are waiting on housing are forced to do when their rent supplement is not increased is to pay illegal top-ups on their rent to landlords. It is the only type of social welfare fraud that I do not hear the Government giving out about, because the people who benefit from the fraud are wealthy landlords and those who suffer from it are the poorest people in the State who are forced to go to moneylenders, for example.

The second most common reason for homelessness is the repossession of buy-to-let accommodation. A total of 35,000 households are potentially at risk of homelessness as a receiver can evict tenants to sell the house. Could the Taoiseach indicate whether there is a plan to introduce legislation to deal with the issue? The Government has repeatedly refused to change the law in this area, whereby someone living in a property due to be sold following repossession has no right of recourse to stay in the property and continue to pay rent. That alone would save a considerable number of people from being turfed onto the streets.

The biggest problem people face in the housing sector is the collapse in construction by local authorities under the Government's term in office. Despite all of the fanfare about Social Housing Strategy 2020, the Government has further privatised local authority housing and sources more and more of it through RAS and HAP. Does the Taoiseach know how many people have taken up the HAP scheme in Dublin City Council? The answer is only a handful because landlords are not interested. Does the Taoiseach not see the error of a policy introduced last year which is clearly not going to work? It was intended that 75% of units would be sourced in that way, but it will not work. When will the committee discuss the matter and report back on it?

The biggest increase in homelessness is family homelessness, which has increased by 800% since 2013. Focus Ireland, which works on the front line with families, has said the increase in homelessness has taken place in the middle of an economic recovery. It used to deal with eight families a month but that had increased to 71 in April. In excess of 100,000 are on the waiting lists for housing. We need those issues to be discussed, and not just by the committee. Will the matter be brought to the Dáil for a debate at some stage because people find it incredible that there has not been a debate on the biggest social ill facing society, bar none? It is more important than the water charges or anything else.

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