Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The changes the Minister announced to the tenant in situ scheme will make more people in Limerick homeless. The changes announced by the Minister are a mistake and should be rowed back as a matter of urgency. The scheme as it stood was working and stopped thousands from becoming homeless. It should have been expanded. It should have been further funded. It is one of the simplest ways to deliver homes for working people. Instead, the Minister has reduced funding and cut the scheme’s targets. The restrictive and punitive new rules exclude those who have no children and they also exclude single people. Perhaps most ridiculously, councils with no money for refurbishment of properties cannot now reclaim refurbishment costs from the Department.

The limited funding combined with additional restrictions make increased homelessness in Limerick inevitable. Limerick City and County Council held a webinar with councillors last week about the impact of these changes and regarding the current state of play of housing support in Limerick, and the situation is very bleak. Across Limerick,107 acquisitions are on hold from last year and with a capital funding allocation for second-hand acquisitions at around €6 million, it is estimated that only 20 to 22 of these will proceed. That means is there is no capacity to purchase any future properties where notice-to-quit orders have been issued. It means 85 households whose inhabitants will become homeless. This excludes any notice-to-quit orders from this year. On top of this, no refurbishment costs have been assigned to acquisitions so any property purchased in a condition short of turnkey ready cannot be prepared for use for those in need of housing.

When the Government was formed there was a lot of rhetoric about getting to grips with the housing crisis and it looks like it is falling at the very first hurdle. After five years of failing to meet targets, of ever-increasing homelessness, of a general election where the actual targets were hidden and the public deceived, one might have hoped a new Minister would have brought a new approach - an approach that keeps people out of homelessness. Alas, it is a case of here we go again. Here we go again with more homelessness. Here we go again with sky-high rents and house costs. Here we go again with restrictions imposed on those most desperate for housing, those who cannot afford to purchase their home.

The Minister would be best served to take note of the opposition to these changes. He should increase the capital allocation for 2025 not reduce it compared with 2024, allow refurbishment costs, end the arbitrary two-year housing support rule and stop excluding single people and couples without children from the scheme. The Minister says he is committed to ending homelessness yet takes actions that will only serve to increase the already high numbers of people without a home.

See this speech in context