Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, for coming into the House to take this matter, despite his busy schedule. He has seen an outline of it and I know that he has prepared a detailed reply.

The matter was brought to my attention by Councillor Pat Fitzgerald who is well known in Arklow and a great champion of the locals. He came across an incident, of which I was not aware, although I deal with many housing issues and applications. It involved a tenant in a house included in the rental accommodation scheme, RAS.The landlord evidently decided to sell the house, so it fell on the council to rehouse the tenants. They had been removed from the housing list and could not qualify for RAS or additional help with their rent. This seems to be an anomaly in the system and I cannot understand why. If someone is on RAS and the house he or she is renting is sold or made otherwise unavailable for whatever reason, which is common nowadays, that tenant cannot return to his or her original place on the housing list or fall back into the HAP net, to which everyone else is entitled, and get assistance with finding other private housing. Instead, the tenant must deal with the council, which must house that person directly. The Minister of State knows more than most, however, that the councils do not have enough houses. In the case in question, the tenants ended up in temporary accommodation because they seemed to fall between two rocks.

I hope that the Minister of State has some enlightening news to give on this matter rather than some statement written by someone in the Department. He has a great understanding of these issues.