Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

What caught my eye in the Minister of State's response was the following:

Given the cost to the State of providing social housing, it is considered prudent and fair to direct resources to those most in need of social housing support. I am satisfied that the current income eligibility requirements generally achieve this.

What that says is that for families that are essentially in Cork city, in some of the most of the competitive and expensive markets such as Rochestown, Togher, Douglas, Grange or even Carrigaline or Ballincollig, it is acceptable or reasonable to expect that a family of two adults and three children would be responsible for organising their own accommodation and would be obliged to find a mortgage out of an income above a mere €33,750. That is for a two-adult family. The other options are to spend the rest of their lives in the rental market or be cast back on their families. That is utterly unfair and unreasonable.

I again urge the Minister to consider a review of the income limits for social housing. The limits are absolutely unreasonable. If that is not possible, the alternative models that have been talked about to some extent are way behind track, such as the cost rental model. There is a review due to come back at the end of this year. That is quite some time before there will be any real action.

I also urge the Minister to consider some flexibility in the boundaries of local authority areas. There are about 50,000 people in and around the fringes of Cork city that are essentially part of the Cork city housing market. The boundaries have not been revised since the 1960s and that is another day's problem. For those people, they are living in the second most competitive housing market in the State. Yet, they are dealing with income limits that are €5,000 to €6,000 below estates that are just up the road. It is impossible for them to secure any kind of long-term accommodation on those rental limits. Some kind of flexibility absolutely has to be considered for that southern division of Cork County Council.

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