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

HAP is precarious. It costs a fortune. People who get HAP end up back in homeless hubs. From the point of view of people, it is not good. From the point of view of the public finances and a sustainable plan, it is going to be a disaster. In 2019, the Minister is proposing 16,000 new HAP tenancies as against only 6,000 council house builds. In 2020, he is planning 13,000 new HAP tenancies and only 7,000 actual builds. In 2021, 10,000 HAP tenancies are planned and only 8,000 builds. All along the way, even if there is something of an increase in direct builds, HAP tenancies dwarf what is going to be built by a factor of three or four. It is about 100,000 of the 137,000 units. It is not going to work and is going to cost us a fortune. From every point of view, financial and social, would it not be better now to ramp up the direct construction of council housing?

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