Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I want to raise an issue which resonates right across the country. It concerns income thresholds for social housing. I have a simple request for the Minister of State.The Government must urgently raise the income limits for social housing. I was concerned by the reply of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to a parliamentary question last November in which he stated that the current income eligibility requirements provide for a fair and equitable system of identifying the households facing the greatest challenge in meeting their accommodation needs from their own resources. I respectfully say they do not. In the course of their local constituency duties Members meet families, week in, week out, who are just above the criteria and have no prospect of securing long-term housing solutions.

I met a couple this week who live in my village. They currently pay rent of €1,400 per month. They have three children and are working people. They have no prospect of putting a deposit together for a house. They are excluded from social housing because they earn in excess of €33,750, the income limit for Limerick. I could have chosen any county, but I wish to discuss Limerick because that is where I am from.

The Minister of State will be aware that rents rocketed under the previous Government, of which he was a member. He will be aware that, in Limerick, rents increased by 45% between 2016 and 2021. According to Daft.ie, the rent for a family renting a three-bedroom house went up from, on average, €799 per month to €1,160. We all know the impact of that big increase and additional cost on families. It means that not only can they not save for a deposit, but they have to go to community welfare officers just to get by, each week and each month. As matters stand, these people have no hope. They are trapped. They are locked out of the social housing system and are trapped with unscrupulous landlords. The couple I mentioned had their rent increased by €200 in December. When they pointed out that the landlord could not do that, as it is illegal under the pandemic rules, he said: "No problem, I will put the house up for sale and you will have to find somewhere else to live". That is the reality at the hard edge of living in rented accommodation.

The problem is that the market is skewed entirely in favour of landlords. Indeed, I would welcome a comment from the Minister of State on that increase in rent, because I have one word for it. An increase of 45% in rents in five years is greed, pure and simple. The Government must respond urgently to this issue. I have some simple requests. The Government must raise the limits, and do so without delay. It must ensure that the working family payment, formerly known as the family income supplement, is not included when calculating income. That is a massive punishment. It is bad enough that people are on low pay and that the Government has not addressed the issue of low pay in the economy, but the Government also punishes them by throwing in that calculation to exclude them from qualifying for social housing. We must also look at the adult income for adult children in households. We know what is happening. Adult children cannot move out of the household because the cost of rents is so high. It is like a perfect storm.

When this Government was formed there was an expectation that there would be a review of the income limits and that they would be urgently moved up, but it has not happened. Instead, the issue is part of a wider review. That wider review is absolutely no use to working families who are being thrown off the housing lists because they receive a small, moderate increase in their income. They are locked out of the housing assistance payment, HAP, and all supports. There are tens of thousands of families in this predicament of having no supports, and the Minister of State knows it. They are locked out of getting a mortgage and they are locked out of social housing. It is grossly unfair. I hope to receive a positive response from the Minister of State.