Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I echo that call. I grew up in Clare. There were many county council estates and they were mixed. We all thought they were good and Government policy still promotes that. If the threshold is set where it is in Clare, if two people in a household are working or even if just one person is working and is just a little over the minimum wage, those people are not entitled to go on the social housing list. Effectively, only people in receipt of social welfare can get social housing in Clare because of where the limits are set. I have no problem with people in receipt of social welfare getting social housing but it should not be limited to that because it will cause ghettoisation of social housing, which nobody thinks is a good thing, and there is a disincentive to work, especially when it is low-paid work. We need to look at those income thresholds for the sake of society and housing in Clare, to even get back to where we were in the 1980s.

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