Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to look at it with the Deputy. I would be surprised.

We had a discussion about overtime earlier, and how that is judged. To be clear, the reason for the review of the guidelines and the establishment of a national standard was because there was a different policy in every local authority prior to that. There were different income limits, gross or net, different allowances for overtime and different allowances for child benefit. A fair system was not administered across the board, so we made sure that was introduced. There is now a fair system. We agreed that it had to be reviewed, and that is happening. In the meantime, there are other supports available to help people who are over that income level. We had a discussion earlier about the Rebuilding Ireland home loan, which is working quite well; almost 500 applications for it have been received. It is a good scheme to help people whose income puts them above the social housing limits. Other schemes exist which seek to deal with the pressure zones in certain areas. We have provided LIHAF funding and we are working with the private sector to bring forward affordable housing. An affordable housing policy is in place throughout the system and every local authority has been asked to bring forward proposals on that issue, and have been asked to manage land for that purpose. Money has been made available by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Murphy, so that such land can be opened up and serviced. A range of initiatives have been put in place; I have only touched on a few.

We recognise, as all Deputies in this House recognise, that the income limits need to be looked at and adjusted. The adjustments will be based on evidence and science, as they were before. The Housing Agency is doing that work for us and gathering the required information. It will make recommendations to the Minister, and the changes will be made in the summer. That is where we are now. If I could click my fingers and have the work done more quickly, I would do it, but it is important that it is done correctly.

See this speech in context