Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I hope the Taoiseach and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage will address urgently what I hope is an unintended consequence of a new statutory instrument that was introduced in March of this year. The instrument changed the income assessment arrangements for social housing. I have been trying to get to the bottom of this because I am dealing with a family of eight who have been homeless for three years. They are currently in emergency accommodation in a hotel and are solely dependent on social welfare, but they are being told they will be evicted from emergency accommodation because, for a period during the 12 months prior to their being assessed, the father was working and the family's income went over the threshold. The father has lost his job and the family is now well below the threshold, but a change requiring an assessment of income earned in the preceding 12 months will now apply. This was not the case previously. I cannot believe the Government intends that those below the threshold should be made homeless. I want the Taoiseach to examine this as a matter of urgency.

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