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

The Minister of State said he would do everything he could to prevent homelessness. I have cited a specific scenario, examples of which will increase as rents continue to spiral. I have encountered a number of these cases. People who are working and living in private rented accommodation for which the landlord is seeking to increase the rent are being unnecessarily evicted because local authorities are precluded, under the terms of the rental accommodation scheme, from allowing such tenants to transfer into the scheme. This is despite the fact that persons who transfer to RAS are allowed to work. In the cases I have highlighted, the landlords are willing to enter the rental accommodation scheme. Given that most local authorities do not operate the housing assistance payment, it is no good the Minister of State telling us that the HAP is coming down the line. It is crazy that the Minister has not issued an instruction to local authorities to accept cases where the landlord of a tenant who happens to be working is willing to enter a lease arrangement with the local authority. This simple measure would prevent tenants being put out on the street.

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