Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Did the Cabinet sign off on the €430,000 salary associated with the strategic housing activation office today? People in County Mayo and across the country who cannot access housing or who are paying exorbitant rates want to know that. This is almost €500,000 in salary for a role that should not be necessary if the Government stuck to its housing projections and implemented the recommendations of the Housing Commission report.

Earlier this month, I wrote to Mayo County Council to seek information about a number of social housing acquisitions in 2024. In Mayo, there has been a cut of 63% to funding for new applications for social housing acquisitions. This has a real impact on people's lives. By the end of 2024,13 tenant in situ acquisitions had been paused.

I am working with a woman whose landlord is selling the house she has lived in for the past seven years. This mother is living with a brain condition and she has a nine-year-old daughter. They are facing homelessness, but because of the restrictions on Mayo County Council, it can no longer purchase a home under the tenant in situ scheme. She said, in her own words, "We have nowhere to go". The best the county council can offer them is emergency accommodation. I ask the Taoiseach to reverse the cuts and severe restrictions to the tenant in situ scheme.

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