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

Following neatly on from Deputy McAuliffe’s intervention regarding the cost rental the Government trumpets, I will highlight something important for the Taoiseach and the Government. If someone is over the social housing income thresholds, that individual is not entitled to HAP or social housing, obviously, so the Government, under pressure, developed cost rental. What are the criteria for cost rental? You have to have a net income of under €53,000 but, critically, you can only pay a rent that is 35% of your net income. A teacher contacted me to say he is currently on a salary of €47,518, which is €2,850 a month net. That means, under the criteria for cost rental, he cannot pay a rent that is more than €997 a month. He is not eligible for cost rental or social housing. The new houses that will be built by the Land Development Agency, LDA, for its first development will be cost rental. How much are the rents likely to be, according to the Government, and in response to this teacher, in this first LDA development? They will be €1,500 on average. A teacher is not eligible for social housing or cost rental because the Government has not aligned people's incomes with cost rental. It needs to get that sorted.

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