Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the increase in the social housing thresholds. This was long overdue. For many people, this will make a difference. I come from the Harbour View Road in Knocknaheeny, which is a social housing estate. The provision of social housing gives people, especially working-class people, the opportunity to have homes of their own. My father still lives in Knocknaheeny. He was able to buy his house under the tenant purchase scheme, and my two sisters and I were able to buy or build our own houses. What was important, though, was having the safety net of social housing. I highlight the importance that social housing holds for people and communities. This is why this increase is so important. Deputy Ó Cuív mentioned the social mix, and he is right. What we have now with the current situation is that anyone who does better for themselves, who gets a better job or has more people in the family working, will find they are being denied access to social housing because they go over the limit.

I dealt with a case of a family where, during Covid, the husband got a promotion in work. After almost 13 years on the social housing list, this man and his family were finally able to get a house in an area they wanted to live in. The family went in, got assessed and then got Garda vetted perfectly. Going through their finances then, though, they found they were €800 over the limit. This was after this family had been waiting for 13 years and after they had done everything right. This man was absolutely distraught. Where was the fairness and justice for him?

Now that we are looking at this issue, I ask the Minister to consider some discretion that local authorities could give to people who were under the threshold but may have gone over it in the past year or two. I know dozens of people who have gone over the threshold by small amounts. I am talking about a couple of hundred euro. Will the Minister look at this issue, consider the people who came off the list in recent years and contemplate some allowance or consideration for these people? People have been waiting nine, ten, 11 and 12 years or more. I sincerely ask the Minister to look at this issue to explore what can be done for these people and families.

The other issue I wish to discuss concerns affordable housing schemes. These were supposed to provide an opportunity of home ownership for those above the social housing income thresholds. For some people, this increase will bring them back under the threshold and this is welcome. The pricing of these schemes for many people, though, is not affordable. We have schemes in Cork where the minimum price is €300,000. The income threshold for a large family on the social housing list previously would have been €42,000. This now means someone earning €43,000 will not be able to afford to buy a home for €300,000. It is just impossible. We must help people and bring affordability back because many people are not going to be able to access affordable housing. The situation we have now is that some people can access social housing, some can access affordable housing and others can get private housing.

We have people who are trapped in the middle again and that needs to be looked at.

There are people spending ten, 11, 12 or even 14 years on housing lists. How can this be considered social housing when people are waiting that length of time and when there are children growing up in housing assistance payment, HAP, tenancies, some of which are poor accommodation? They are losing their childhood.

We have had local authorities before the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, of which I am a member, for the past couple of weeks and they tell us that if they meet all the Government targets for delivery of social, affordable and cost-rental housing, the housing lists will be bigger in 2026 than they are now. The only solution to social housing is the provision and the building of more housing. Local authorities are not doing direct builds. That is something on which the Minister needs to work with local authorities. I live in Gurranabraher. It was built 80 years ago by the old Cork County Council. We need to get back to doing that.

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