Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Morgan McKinley quarterly employment monitor, which was published last week, found that employers were struggling to fill entry-level graduate positions because young people were emigrating due to the lack of housing and the cost-of-living crisis. A protracted and acute shortage of affordable and social homes continues to have a profound effect on Ireland's economy and society. For many, the social contract has been broken for some time, as the ability to keep secure roofs over their heads slips further out of their reach. A winter ban on evictions into homelessness is needed urgently. We do not have clarity on when the Government will do that. Can the Taoiseach reassure renters that the Minister will publish the legislation in the coming days and not December, as has been reported? A temporary ban on evictions is welcome, but we all agree that it will not in itself resolve the core problem. Social housing building output for this year is falling far short of the Government's target. At the end of June, just 1,765 of the 9,000 new builds for 2022 had been delivered.

Last week, I asked the Taoiseach if the Cabinet would consider increasing income thresholds for social housing eligibility. To be frank, the answer I received was underwhelming. There is an urgent need to increase the thresholds in areas where there are acute affordability issues, such as Dublin, Cork and my county of Limerick. We learned over the weekend that Fine Gael Ministers intend to push for income threshold increases for social housing eligibility. Will the Taoiseach confirm his party's support for such a measure?

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