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

For a very long time, some of us campaigned for the Government to introduce a policy of using public money to buy the homes of people threatened with eviction. Very slowly, and not very consistently, the Government has started to do that. It is not doing enough. A cohort of people is not getting any benefit from this, namely, those who happen to be over the social housing income thresholds.

This is because the Government will not sanction the purchase of homes if these people are not on the social housing list. These people are not entitled to HAP and, therefore, are in many cases in a worse position. I know of a family who are going to court for an enforcement order to evict them from the home in which they have lived all their lives. They have written to the Taoiseach and the Minister and they believe they will probably be living in their car with their two children by next week. These are working people who have paid their taxes and have always paid their rent. Will the Taoiseach do something about that?

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