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

Jackie and her husband are a lovely couple in their 50s. He has worked all his life for a semi-State company. Tomorrow morning, I will be accompanying them and their two children to the District Court where their landlord is seeking enforcement proceedings to evict them from the home in which they have lived all their lives. Because they are over the threshold, they are not entitled to social housing and are not entitled to housing assistance payment, HAP. They are absolutely goosed. They need hope. At the moment the local authority is saying that the tenant in situscheme does not apply because they are over the threshold. They cannot get HAP because they are over the threshold but they cannot even come close to affording the rents being charged in their area. As I am very worried about their welfare, I am making an urgent last-minute appeal for the Government to instruct local authorities that the tenant in situpurchase scheme will apply to people, even if they are over the threshold, where they are threatened with homelessness. At the very least they should be entitled to HAP so they can try to source alternative accommodation.

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