Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

Following a review last year, all 31 local authorities will see an increase of €5,000 in public housing income thresholds from January. As far as I am aware, this is an interim measure and a broader review of the public housing model is to be completed next year, which will be a review of the review. I hope that in that broader review, the housing income threshold will be increased to at least the average industrial wage. According to the CSO, that is €45,500 per year, although others have said it is €50,000. I am aware that it is not the gross income that is considered for the threshold and limits but the net income.

With Dublin City Council, a single person has to earn less than €35,000 to get onto the housing list. That goes up to €42,000 for three adults plus four children. It is €40,250 for two adults and four children. This €5,000 increase is an improvement and will assist more people to get onto the housing list but it is not what we really need from the point of view of access. An awful lot of these people who are earning less than the average industrial wage are the ones who are facing massive rent increases and cannot afford to get a mortgage. They are the 20-, 30- and 40-year-olds who are living at home.

It goes without saying that if more people are on the list, the State must build more housing so these people will not be left languishing on the housing list for ten, 15 or 20 years, as some of my constituents in Dublin South-Central are. It must be State-led, through a State building company, using public lands. There is enough land there to build 100,000 homes. They must also be appropriate homes. That is important.

There are also a number of complications around the housing list. I will flag two instances that need intervention in this broad review. A woman working in retail approached us recently. She and her son are 15 years on the housing list. She got an offer through choice-based letting for a two-bedroom house but at this stage her son is working and contributing to society. She was over the income threshold of €35,875 for one adult and one child because his income was taken into account, and the offer was withdrawn. She had to apply again to the council for one-bedroom accommodation and her adult son had to apply for his own spot on the housing list. This is literally separating families. What is happening there is outrageous. Another family were on the list for a three-bedroom house for 15 years. Their eldest daughter is now working so they had to go down to a two-bedroom house and the daughter had to go on a separate application. There are huge complications and a lot of messiness around the housing situation. Public housing should cater for bus workers, railway workers, post office, retail and community workers, right across the band. That is the way it used to be and that is the way it should be again.

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