Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I genuinely thank the Minister of State for that, but there is a systemic issue here. I can give him the list and the names right now, and that is fine.

Will the Minister of State specifically address the letter that has been issued informing the tenant she must wait until she is eight weeks out? In his response the Minister of State stated "Local authorities take appropriate steps to ensure their first response will be to support households to try to prevent homelessness in cases where tenants have been served with a notice of termination." That is not happening. Their first response is supposed to be to help tenants but actually, their first response is to tell them to go and see if they can find a HAP house.

A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I am not going to use the kind of language that is rolling around in my head now but this is incredibly frustrating. This is supposed to be a homelessness prevention measure. Imagine what a young woman with her child is thinking when she gets a letter like that, telling her to wait until she is eight weeks away from homelessness and then the local authority will engage with the landlord. The landlord wants to sell the property. I know the local authority cannot buy every house. Probably, part of me wishes it could, to prevent homelessness. However, they cannot and I get that but the operation of this specific policy, that is, to wait until a tenant is eight weeks out from the termination date, effectively guarantees that person is going to be homeless for the simple reason that there will not be enough time to complete the sale. The landlord knows that. Logic dictates that if a landlord gets that letter saying he or she has to wait until eight weeks before the termination notice, that person knows it is not going to be completed. The Minister of State knows it is not going to be completed. I ask the Minister of State specifically to examine that. I understand the local authority does not have to give a reason for not purchasing a property but where it does, can a landlord challenge that? Can the landlord ask for specific information? I cannot accept that it is somehow commercially sensitive to share that information with the landlord when in the case I highlighted, the landlord himself is saying he will do the repairs if he can but he needs to be told what they are. However, he has been told it is commercially sensitive. I ask the Minister of State, rather than going into specific individual cases, and we can do that, will he look at those two cases in particular? That is coming directly from the council. Will his Department look at that?

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