Dáil debates
Thursday, 18 April 2019
Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions
Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness
11:00 am
Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source
Let me state the obvious - we have a worsening housing crisis. Today's report from the Ombudsman indicates that. We are going to spend €100 million building new hubs this year. The average cost of keeping a household in a hub is €100,000 per year. Two years of such expenditure would build a council house on public land. In that light, the suffering of the children is also madness from an economic point of view.
I do not understand the overall current expenditure figures for this year. In the budget book, the Government has allocated €423 million for HAP, €155 million for leasing from the private sector, €134 million for RAS, which goes to the private sector, and €146 million for homelessness services. All of that adds up to €858 million. I cannot understand how the €423 million for HAP will be sufficient, given that the Government allocated €417 million for it last year and has claimed that we will have an additional 16,700 HAP tenancies this year. Despite that, there will only be an extra €6 million allocated to it. That does not add up.
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