Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are a few points I wish to raise. I will provide examples of what this policy change is doing. I will re-emphasise that I do not think there is any agenda here. These are unintended consequences, but they needs to be fixed. The Minister of State has emphasised the point regarding discretion. That is not the local authorities' understanding of it and it is not my experience of it in Cork. From listening to other Deputies, it is also an issue in other local authorities. It is not a case of one tor two local authorities misunderstanding the situation. Local authorities are reading it as being a case of them having less discretion. That is the reality. I would probably like the circular to be revised. here is a wider issue about how low the income thresholds are, but in the meantime, the level of discretion needs to be strongly emphasised to local authorities and made very clear to them.

I have dealt with well over a dozen families who have lost places on the housing list. The Minister and the Minister of State know that that is money in the bank for people. The problem is that there is a rigidity to this and applicants cannot go back and get that once they come off the list. If they are on the list for six, seven or ten years and then come off the list, they are gone and the clock starts again. I know of one family who were on the list for seven years and had an offer of social housing taken from them on the basis of this new policy. They had to start again. I know of another family who were on the list for nine or ten years and were taken off it. They had to move in with parents.

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