Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister of State for his response. He referred to zero tolerance, but it does not look like zero tolerance because this man can live wherever he bloody well likes and Janet is stuck. I wish the Minister of State could meet this woman because all she has done is work hard. Through no fault of her own, she finds herself in a situation where she could be waiting 30 years to get permanent housing. She does not earn enough to buy a house, but that should not mean that she does not have somewhere secure to live. The Minister of State says two things in the reply. He says, "As regards the waiting list for social housing, it is not possible for a household previously on one social housing ... list to carry the time spent ...". He can see that this is clearly what I am asking. I am asking that some accommodation be made. The local authority does not feel like it has the latitude. I know that exceptions can be made. I understand how awful it is for people on housing lists and I never come in here to plead a personal case for someone. I am doing it simply because it really does not feel to me like the local authority believes it has the scope to look at this separately and to offer a little latitude. I know the people who work hard in Fingal County Council. They are good people and they want to do right by this but they clearly do not feel like they have the wherewithal to do it. I will absolutely feed into the strategy, but perhaps if there were a signal from the Custom House, that might encourage them.

I reiterate that I deal with cases all the time.

The Minister of State does; we all do. We tell people that is the way it is and they have to wait. If the Minister of State could meet this person, she has done nothing wrong and it feels like she is being punished. He can live where he damn well pleases. She is the victim yet she is the one who feels like she is being punished.

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I will send on the details to him. I hope somebody can take a look at this.

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