Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I also wish to raise a housing matter and it is related to the increase in housing assistance payment, HAP, figures. On Friday, I put in a query on behalf of somebody whose house is being sold and who is about to be made homeless. The person cannot find anything for under €1,500 per month. I inquired whether the revised HAP figures that the Minister had indicated at a social housing conference three years previously had been communicated to local authorities and I was told the local authority had not received any communication.

It is unfortunate that the Minister is making announcements without informing local authorities, and that people who are about to be evicted and made homeless have not been communicated with and do not know the level of HAP allowance to which they are entitled. This is a single person, so the person is inquiring whether it will be merged with the couple's rate, which is what was indicated.

There are also people on homeless HAP. We wrote to the Minister on the back of that, but I also ask the Deputy Leader of the House to write to the Minister and ask him to communicate to local authorities what the available HAP rates are and to ensure that they are more reflective of the market.

Second, I wish to raise autism places in Dublin 8. Today, the Labour Party introduced a Private Members' Bill on the autism strategy. I was speaking to some of the people in Dublin 12 who have been advocating for special autism classes. There are 17 primary schools in Dublin 12 and 11 of them either have an autism spectrum disorder, ASD, class or an early intervention class. There are six primary schools in Dublin 8 with no autism classes. There are eight secondary schools in the area and four of them have no autism classes. The Dublin 12 group is asking that, essentially, Dublin 12 be used as an exemplar and that every school would have an autism class for people who need special education and people with additional needs. I ask the Deputy Leader of the House to speak to the Minister to see if Dublin 12 can be used as an exemplar. Most of the schools there are willing to put classes in place, but they need the support and resources of the Department to be able to open them.