Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The difficulty with the circular is twofold. First, the language indicates that it applies only when the household is deemed to be at risk of homelessness, for example when they are eligible for homeless HAP, which would be six weeks out from their notice to quit. That is far too late in the day to intervene. Second, under the previous tenant in situscheme there was greater flexibility. Dublin City Council, for example, would have acquired properties for households at risk of homelessness who were on the housing list five years.. For Kildare, even lower in my own local authority, it was about eight years. This circular is being interpreted as applying only where a tenant would otherwise have a successful allocation of accommodation, so ten to 14 years on the list, and only when they are imminently at risk of homelessness, so six weeks out. That is far too rigid. The private rental sector has become so constrained that there is virtually nothing out there, as the Minister knows, for those families who have notices to quit. I urge the Minister to sit down and meet with Opposition spokespeople to tease out how to make the wording of the circular more flexible to prevent families from becoming homeless and to reduce those increased presentation numbers from next month and the months immediately after that.

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