Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are in the midst of a housing crisis where nearly 12,000 people are accessing emergency support, and 3,500 of those are children. This is not counting our rough sleepers and it is not counting those who are sofa surfing. Then we hear that the Minister did not spend almost €1 billion of the Government's capital budget for social and affordable housing since 2020. It just beggars belief. I cannot understand it. This is affecting people across the spectrum. Last week we heard from the teachers' conference that teachers cannot afford to live and teach in Dublin. They are leaving. They are going elsewhere in the country or they are leaving the country. The same is happening with our nurses and our gardaí. People who should be working in our disability teams assessing children and providing services cannot afford to rent on their wages and they are leaving the country for a better quality of living. They are leaving the country because they cannot afford to rent or to buy in this country.

I had conversation last year with the housing officer in Cavan County Council when the Minister announced measures around affordable housing. I asked her how many affordable houses would be produced in Cavan under the scheme. She told me it was none. Yet, I have people coming into my office who are above the income threshold for social housing. They are working and they are earning more than the €30,000, or whatever the limit is, so they are not eligible for any housing supports. Yet, they cannot afford the exorbitant rents being asked in Cavan. Rents are now at €1,200 to €1,500. They are rising uncontrollably. It is not a rent pressure zone. It needs to be declared a rent pressure zone because nothing else will stop landlords from raising the rents. There is no availability so they can do what they want and they can ask for what they want.

I know of a number of people whose circumstances have changed. One woman lost her job and cannot afford the rent she was paying when she was working. Obviously, there is nothing else available. She has now applied for social housing, to get the housing assistance payment, HAP, so she can get help with her rent. It will take five months for her application to be processed. Why? It is because the local authority is under resourced. That is the Minister's Department again. The local authorities are under resourced and they cannot process the applications that are coming in. We will see people homeless because they have nowhere to go.

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