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

Among other things, the NRP addresses the housing crisis and challenges relating to housing. I again draw the Taoiseach's attention to a particular aspect of the housing crisis, namely people who are working, earning money, paying tax and contributing to our society who find themselves driven over the thresholds for social housing. Those thresholds are so low those people are losing their ten or 15 years on the housing list. When they start earning a few quid over the threshold, those years are all gone.

However, because their earnings are just over the threshold, they are not enough to pay the rents out there or even to access some of the cost-rental programmes, if they could get a cost-rental property. We have to do something. I have highlighted the case of a woman and her husband who were on HAP and are facing homelessness. If they end up homeless, they will lose even their entitlement to HAP. That makes no sense. If you are in a council house, which people should have, you do not lose it if you earn more. Rather, your rent is adjusted. However, ironically, if you end up homeless, you lose everything. You are completely trapped. We have to do something about this. It is just not fair. It is punishing people who are working, contributing and trying to make an effort. The thresholds themselves are a problem. There are issues with the income thresholds for some of the cost-rental developments. You can be eligible on one ground but not eligible because your income is too low for the rents, even if you can get a cost-rental property. This issue has to be addressed for working people.

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