Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes, it is working. As I said, however, it is not working quickly enough. We happen to have in my constituency a situation whereby a variety and cohort of people cannot access the market at all, no matter what happens, except over long waiting periods. For example, we have many people whose homes were repossessed by the banks back in the early days of the financial crash. They are not able to access a loan because of two things, one of which is their age. Obviously, they have moved on in the meantime and are no longer in the age bracket that it is attractive to get a loan at a reasonably affordable cost. We need to do something about that to bring their possibilities upfront and particularly target it at them.

For a number of people then, on one hand, their increment is too high to qualify for a local authority house. We are getting a number of local authority houses from the Part V scheme at present and that is welcome. It is progressive and good. However, it is not quick enough either. There are, therefore, a large number of people on that housing list who have come to be on the list in a variety of ways, one of which is through an application to their local authority. Their income is too high to qualify for a local authority house and too low to qualify for a local authority loan. They are then consigned to the marketplace almost forever. Then, there is the group of people who are getting older and whose housing possibilities are growing dimmer by the day.

This is the last point I will make. A number of people were also knocked off housing lists all over the country during Covid-19 and the lockdown, and unfairly knocked off as far as I am concerned. I ask now, especially, that the Minister considers a new element to the scheme to allow them back on the list without having to go through a waiting period.

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