Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My colleague, Deputy Richmond, and I appreciate that the net issue around construction is a matter for the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. However, we want to deal with a specific issue relating to the financial impact of the shutdown of the construction sector. There are families who have been engaging in home renovation projects and who are renting other accommodation for the period of the renovation. The unforeseen additional shutdown of construction activity in the private accommodation sector has left them facing very considerable additional rental bills. Some families can absorb that additional cost but many of them are under severe financial pressure to bear it for three, four, five or even six months. They also need to plan two months in advance in order to give notice to their short-term landlord.

I want to flag this as a significant cost burden to the families affected which, in some cases, they are simply unable to bear. I am asking that the Department of Social Protection make additional needs payments available to them, whether under the supplementary welfare provisions or as exceptional needs payments.

It is a question of ensuring that if the families approach the Department or Intreo offices, the Department will be aware of their circumstances and the burden on them. The families would not necessarily present to the Department or Intreo in other circumstances but they are under particular pressure now.

We are aware that renovations and private home construction cannot be progressed at the moment. People understand that, although they look with frustration at the construction activity that has been going on, including in respect of housing adaptation and social houses, as important as these are. When it is one's own house that is being renovated and the works are subject to the vagaries of the wind and rain, meaning that jobs cannot be completed, and one is bearing an additional burden, it is very difficult. In my constituency, for example, there is an affected couple who recently purchased a private home in a new development. The home is at the final snagging stage but the deadline of 31 January could not be met. Had everything gone to plan, the couple would have moved in last month. They had been saving for a really long time but they just cannot afford the additional rent. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, for hearing us on this.

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