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

I know the Minister of State is not, but the Minister is. Jackie and her husband, who, I repeat, works for a State company, with their two kids have written to the Minister, to the Taoiseach and to everybody. They have written to Frank Curran, the head of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. They are over the income threshold, so none of the things the Minister of State said will help them. Jackie and her family cry themselves to sleep every night and they are going to be living in a car because they have nowhere to go, no HAP and no support. Then there are the families in Tathony House and Rathmines Road, all facing the prospect of ending up on the street because there is nowhere to go.

There needs to be a clear policy whereby people who have paid their rent and have done nothing wrong will not end up in emergency accommodation or in a car. That has to be the policy. The State must step in even if a person's income is slightly over the threshold. Cost rental is a recognition that people who are not eligible for social housing still cannot afford market prices. Therefore, the State needs to step in in those cases as well and there needs to be a clear imperative that it will do so. Why would the Government let people become homeless? It will have to pay for and deal with the consequences of that. Why would it not do everything to stop that?

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