Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State's response.It is good to see that the Government is finally moving on this and that a review has been conducted. There should be a greater level of urgency. It is hoped to have it in quarter 1 in 2023, but we should be demanding to have it at that stage. People are struggling to meet their housing needs and we know there are particular challenges in all counties. I welcome that some counties have moved up from band 3 to band 2. One could say that maybe other counties should have been moved also. In Mayo, for example, the income eligibility threshold being down at €25,000 and €30,000 between a single person and a family is extremely low. When looking for a three-bedroom property three or four years ago, a person could reasonably expect to get one to rent for in the region of €700 or €800. Now it is about €1,400. This has just happened in the past three or four years. The increase in rent in the last number of years in a county such as Mayo has been absolutely phenomenal. If one checks daft.ieor other rental websites or local auctioneers on any given day, one will find in the region of 20 properties to rent in total for the entire county.

I completely support the call by councillors and the county councils to increase the income thresholds to a level that includes people who are working but are on lower incomes. The fact that we have a housing support system in place that effectively precludes anybody who has a job and is working is not good for society, it is not good for mixed tenure development, and it is not good for the way local authorities operate. We are getting this directly from local elected members who are on the ground and working in this space. They know the housing need in their areas. The councillors in Mayo know the housing need in the area and they have made a direct request to the Minister of State, the Minister and the Government to address that deficit. I ask the Minister of State now that we would have a little bit more detail as to when the review and the recommendations will be implemented. When will we see a direct correlation between that and the actual supports being available on the ground?