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

Along the same lines, we still have a devastating housing crisis with multiple facets to it. One of these is the cliff edge of thresholds when it comes to social housing income thresholds, where people find themselves threatened with the possibility of homelessness through no fault of their own but then discover they have now gone over the threshold in this regard, even though they may have been on a housing list for years. It is a cliff edge because once people are denied the possibility of social housing because of income, they are also denied HAP, but in many cases they are disallowed from cost-rental housing on affordability grounds.

On income grounds, they fit, but on affordability grounds, because their income is not sufficient, they do not fit. This must be addressed as a matter of urgency. There is also the trap I mentioned to the Taoiseach previously whereby those who go into emergency accommodation are no longer allowed to get the HAP.

In addition, I am aware of a family of eight where one of their kids is working as a junior doctor in one of our most well-known hospitals.

See this speech in context