Seanad debates

Tuesday, 15 November 2022

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

2:30 pm

Photo of Rebecca MoynihanRebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for outlining the Order of Business, which we will support today. As others in the House have done, I want to start by paying tribute to Vicky Phelan.My former party leader, Deputy Alan Kelly, worked very closely with Vicky on the CervicalCheck tribunal. Because of her refusal to sign a non-disclosure agreement, she took a stand and shone a light on behalf of other women. It was not enough for her to be vindicated herself; she wanted other women to have that vindication and to be informed where their slides had been misread or they had been misdiagnosed. The women of Ireland and, in particular, screening programmes in Ireland will owe her a debt of gratitude for decades to come because of her simple refusal to stay silent or to sign that non-disclosure agreement.

This morning I attended the launch of the Raise the Roof campaign, which is calling for a national rally on housing on 26 November in Dublin. Among the issues highlighted at the press conference today were access to social housing and people in the insecure private rented sector. I have raised this many times on the floor of the House. There are two key things the Government could be doing that it has not done. Since 2011 we have not reviewed the income thresholds for social housing, with the exception of five counties that secured special dispensations in September. Since 2017 we have not reviewed HAP, even though we have allowed the discretionary limits for the scheme to change. That means that low-paid private renters in private high-rent housing such as Tathony House, in my constituency, where we are looking at 35 people being evicted from those apartments, are not able to access basic social housing or, more crucially, HAP for assistance in the private rented sector. I am calling today for a debate on the income limits for social housing. There is a report that has been sitting on the Minister's desk for over a year at this stage. We keep being told that something is being brought forward, but then we saw that tinkering around the edges with the five counties in September. We need a full and frank debate because people's wages have grown, yet the rate at which they can go on the social housing list and then access other supports has not grown or changed since 2011, during which time rents in the private rented sector have at least doubled.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.