Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas le Sinn Féin as an tairiscint seo. I ask the Government to engage with the Opposition on housing because, frankly, the policies the former is putting forward are ensuring that people go into homelessness, and that includes families, children and hard-working individuals. They are facing homelessness and there is absolutely no reason for it. This scheme is a solution, and it is just so frustrating that we face this situation and have to argue over this. This scheme was set up to help to prevent homelessness. It is meant to give councils the ability to buy homes where landlords are selling, keeping tenants in place instead of putting them out on the street. It sounds like common sense but it is not actually working that way for the Government at the moment. Multiple families and individuals in Dublin South-Central have contacted me about their landlords wanting to sell their homes to the council through the scheme, and the landlords are willing and wanting to do it. It keeps the people who are living in those homes in their community, and I cannot stress how important that is to people. It is not just a house or an apartment; it is a home. It is where they live, where their children go to school, where they might go to work, where they socialise, where their sporting facilities are - whatever it is. It is a total upheaval for people who are being made homeless for no reason other than that this scheme is not sorted. There is just a pile of bureaucracy, delays and excuses. Even when it was working, the process was so slow and so tied up in red tape. In addition, sales are falling through because landlords are just saying that this is taking too long. People are being forced out of their homes.

I spoke today to a woman who said to me that her landlord was willing to sell the home to the council and it took over a year. Several times the landlord told her she just could not wait. Thankfully, she did and that person is now in a tenant in situ home, is absolutely delighted and can stay in her community.

These are not just statistics who are becoming homeless. They are people who are becoming homeless. They are mothers who do not know where they are going to have their children sleeping. They are people who live alone, individuals who have been living alone in a home, who are then all of a sudden going to be living alone homeless. The system just does not move fast enough. The homelessness numbers are at a record high and the crisis is only getting worse. There is then this scheme, which is a tool to help, that is just being wasted. Local authorities need to be given the required resources and direction urgently. While I note the amendment being proposed to the motion states several times that a circular will be issued for 2025, it is 19 March now and I do not know what part of 2025 that will go in for. We need to ensure those places for those people desperately in need are fast-tracked. There should be no more delays. I urge the Minister to work with the Opposition on this issue. Every time someone from the Government side stands up, he or she says the Government wants to have solutions and wants the Opposition to give proposals for things that will work. We are giving one and we ask the Minister to please do it.

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