Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am going to but it is wholly inadequate. I wrote to the Minister on 7 March 2019 with regard to the criteria for the scheme. Part 5 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act states that the Minister may, from time to time, consider it appropriate to issue housing authorities guidelines but this has not been done. The Minister should not strangle the local authorities with upper income limits, particularly for couples. Given that €2,024 is the average monthly rent in Dublin city and county, a couple consisting of a nurse or a garda earning €75,000 between them will be excluded from the draft scheme, which is not what we want. That is not the scheme that Fianna Fáil developed. The previous Act would allow for discretion at local authority level. This must happen. We need clarity about when the scheme will open for applications. The only way that can be done is after we know what the real criteria for the scheme are.

I ask the Minister to look back at the letter I sent him on 7 March, a copy of which I will give to him. There are elements in that letter that may be helpful to him and his officials so that we are not trying to fit square pegs into round holes. In some areas of the country, the criteria may work while they may not work in others. Can I come back in?

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