Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Kildare contingent, I congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris. Obviously, as others have said, they are very welcome to the short grass county when they come to Ireland, and we look forward to that occasion.

Today, I wish to ask for a debate on a couple of housing issues. The first issue that needs to be addressed urgently is what I have previously referred to in this House as "intercounty HAP", basically where a person from one county wants to rent in a neighbouring county. This is particularly a problem in the county where I live and reside, County Kildare, given our proximity to counties Carlow, Laois and Offaly. The Minister has said that it is possible to do this, and he has indeed said that on the record, but unfortunately the housing authorities in those particular counties have a different view of the matter, and they are not allowing people from my own county to cross the border and to receive the housing assistance payment, HAP, in those counties.

A recent example would be an area I have dealt with, a lovely area called Ballylinan. It has a postal address of Country Kildare but is in the Laois local authority area. Recently there was a house for rent there, and I knew a large number of desperate families were looking to rent the property. However, with the experience I have had, I had to tell them that they would not be able to avail of this particular property. I ask the Minister once again to address this issue. I know that he will tell me that it can happen, but as I have said previously, my experience on the ground is that the local authorities are not allowing this to happen.

We also have another issue in County Kildare, whereby we have a number of those entitled to rent through the social rent system coming from Dublin. Because they have higher deposits etc., landlords are taking them on, which is reducing the number of properties available to those who need to rent in County Kildare. Obviously, we are still in a housing crisis, so I ask the Leader to ask the Minister to come before the House.