Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise another problem with the tenant in situscheme that has come to my attention, along with the difficulties with a lack of capacity in local authorities. Owing to the chronic shortages in housing in Dublin, including in my constituency of Dublin Bay South, many people are in house-shares with different types of tenure and lone parents, older people and a mix of full private rent and housing assistance payment, HAP, tenants are often living in one house. When a landlord goes to sell, however, all of them clearly get eviction notices. They are all subject to the same treatment in eviction but if one of the tenants is on HAP, our understanding is that he or she is not eligible for a tenant in situscheme if the others in the house-share are private tenants. We understand they are also excluded from cost-rental tenant in situschemes. This is a serious issue for many people involved in these shared tenancies, which are becoming increasingly common, as we know, given the chronic housing shortage. Will the Taoiseach ensure that the cost-rental scheme will cover all of those in shared tenancies, whatever their status? Otherwise we will see an even greater increase in homelessness than we had sadly anticipated might occur with the lifting of the eviction ban.

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