Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On this first day back, I again raise the issue of housing. This is simply because each week and each month the situation continues to get worse. The figures for July are shocking. The number of homeless people rose to 10,568, including 3,137 children.That is higher than the previous peak in October 2019. I have to put it to the Leader that the policies pursued by this Government directly resulted in that increase in homelessness, specifically, the decision to lift the ban on evictions in April of last year. Since then, homelessness has increased by 25% and child homelessness is up by 43%. That is the record of this Government since April of last year. Family homelessness is up by 30%.

We are spending half of what we need to on housing. Those are not my words; those are the words of the Government’s own think tank, the ESRI. We need an immediate ban on evictions. We need a doubling of investment in housing. However, perhaps the issue that shows quite how out of touch the Government is is the refusal of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, to raise the income thresholds for local authority housing. An increase has been allowed in just five counties. In Limerick, the threshold is €30,000 for a single person. Does anyone on the Government benches think that someone earning more than €30,000 can fund their own housing at this point in time? They are facing rents of up to €1,500 a month. They are trapped in the rental market and local authorities are saying that they will not help them. The threshold is there at €30,000. The Minister has a report on income thresholds on his desk since last December and he has refused to publish it. That is a political choice he is making that is trapping hundreds of thousands of working people in this horrific rental market where they are paying ridiculously over the odds and have no prospect of getting out. These are Government choices. We need better choices. I am asking for an urgent debate on this issue.