Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)

This is one of the areas where there is a large chasm between where the people of Ireland are and where the political establishment in Leinster House sits. Most people want to be able to provide shelter for those who are fleeing war and violence and to be able to help people, especially from Ukraine, given the horrendous war happening there. However, most people want a level of fairness in the system. They want that two people living on the same street will not have a difference between them that gives one family an advantage in accommodation over another. They also want a situation where resources are given to those who need them, rather than to people because of the colour of their skin or their nationality.

Here we have a payment which is given to individuals irrespective of the level of income they earn. There is no threshold for the income that is earned by a person under which they can achieve this income. It is incredibly wrong that we have a situation where people in one house could earn €100,000 and gain this particular support and next door those on €30,000 do not gain this particular support.

A tenant came into my office recently. She is a woman who has two children with autism and a baby on the way. She lives in a two-bedroom apartment on the third floor of a block of apartments. It is difficult for her to manage her family in that situation. She was in tears because she has another child on the way and cannot gain access to another house with better accommodation due to the housing crisis. A father came in recently who recently separated and is living in emergency accommodation. He cannot bring his children into the emergency accommodation because there are ten other men living in it and he cannot gain access to a house which would properly accommodate his family. Many people are living in difficult situations and find themselves in competition with individuals who are given a higher level of support than they are to gain accommodation. Most people outside this House, the majority who are not worn down by ideology and just have a common-sense practicality to them, recognise that is absolutely wrong.

Aontú has said from the start that we need to give shelter to those who need it, but we need to make sure the supports we provide do not provide a pull factor for people to come to this country or give someone an advantage over an individual in this country. No one from outside the country should get any more than anyone in the country as regards the supports they get to live. That has not been the case and it has been a significant ingredient, if we are honest, in a lot of the anger and frustration that has built and bubbled up in communities. The Government's approach to this whole process has been one of chaos and it has damaged the cohesion that existed, unfortunately, in the past.

I welcome that Sinn Féin has moved onto this ground as regards the common-sense element. It is important that we start to get mainstream political parties talking about the need for equality in the supports families get for accommodation. It is absolutely necessary that we have a means test in the system. It is mind-boggling to most people that it is not properly means tested. Perhaps the Minister of State will ask whether that can be done in future.

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