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

For several years I have asked repeatedly for the income thresholds for social housing to be increased. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has promised repeatedly that they will be reviewed. The failure of the Government to honour its promise to do so is resulting in a cull of working people from housing lists. For example, I have written to the Minister this week about a woman who works for the HSE as an environmental health officer. She is likely to be given a new Brexit-related job with the HSE and if she gets it, she will receive a slight pay increase. If that happens and unless the Minister raises the income thresholds, she will have to resign from her job because she will lose eight years on the housing list and on her income she will have no chance of being able to buy or rent. She is paying over 50% of her income on rent she absolutely cannot afford. This is happening to hundreds, if not thousands, of workers who are being culled from housing lists. When will the income thresholds be increased to stop it?

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