Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman for allowing this question now.

While we are all aware of the Government's failure in recent years to meet its social housing targets with 135,000 people languishing on waiting lists, this week we learned that the European Committee of Social Rights has indicated that the Government has violated its charter and that local authorities had failed to "ensure the right to housing of an adequate standard for a not insignificant number of families". The committee found that "the Government has failed to take sufficient and timely measures to ensure the right to housing of an adequate standard for a not insignificant number of families living in local authority housing and therefore holds that there is a violation of article 16". What is the Minister's response to this? How will he seek to redress it? What provisions has he made in the context of the recent budget in order for an audit or a planned increase of the available funds for local authorities to address this properly?

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