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

At the risk of blowing our own trumpet on this issue, we have always said that whether it was inflation, rent freezes or anything else proposed by Government or Opposition parties, it would not work because rents were already too high. We need to set rents. The obvious gap relates to any new property. The Government said we will solve the problem by increasing supply, but any cap or freeze is meaningless because landlords can set whatever rents they like for any new properties. We need to set rents at affordable levels. Unless we do that, rent will continue to climb, even if there is new supply.

I have to be honest. I will plague the Taoiseach on this issue. I have raised the income thresholds for eligibility for social housing with the Taoiseach last week and the week before. I have raised this with the Minister. There has been review after review and promise after promise but nothing has been done. I understand there are now four cases in my area alone of people in homeless accommodation who are being threatened with homelessness. In fairness, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, intervened in one of the cases to stop the immediate threat of a family being put out onto the street, but the fundamental problem remains. The local authority has said the rules are such that it is required to put people out of homeless accommodation when they go above the income threshold. We need to raise the income threshold immediately.

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