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

If HAP works in certain areas, happy days. I am delighted with anything that keeps people out of homeless accommodation. However, in south Dublin, accommodation is not available under HAP and I would like the Minister to address this. I would like Government Members to get this into their heads. There is quite a lot of expensive accommodation. Ten times more rental accommodation is available for in excess of €3,000 a month than for under €1,500 a month. There is lots of accommodation that nobody can afford but no accommodation that people on HAP can afford. That problem will be exacerbated because of the proportion of private housing being built for the market currently. Even when the houses come on stream, they will still be unaffordable because they will be priced above the HAP limits and, therefore, even the medium-term and long-term plan will not address the problem in south Dublin. Will the Minister get that into his head and then we can start to move towards solutions?

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