Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

A young woman was featured on the programme. Selina Hogan from Ballyfermot will be put out of her house on Easter Monday. Selina is entitled to HAP but cannot get a landlord to take her. The HAP scheme is an abject failure for hundreds of families which cannot access accommodation provided by private landlords who will not take them. We need to examine this carefully because it is continuously leading to families being made homeless. They cannot access the HAP scheme because landlords do not want them. It was also reported to me that REITs say the Minister's system is not working for them. The idea was that these vulture funds would get the houses and the REITs would, through market mechanisms, help to take people off the homeless list. Apparently, REITs are not receiving the HAP from the Department for three or four months and they are not interested in dealing with the Department.

I will return to the issue of rent controls in my final minute.

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