Lynn Ruane (Independent)

The Minister of State is very welcome. I raise an issue that has come past my desk a couple of times over the last few weeks. There seems to be an increased pressure on families, especially vulnerable families, some of them headed up by women, in relation to rent arrears. In one of two cases of rent arrears, one for €12,000 and another for €10,000, the person has been put out onto the street with their family. They have been in the house over 42 years. A figure of €12,000 is a drop in the ocean compared to the fact that the Dublin Region Homeless Executive stated that it can cost up to €180,000 per year to put a family in emergency accommodation.

However, what has come to my attention in supporting some of those families who are facing court proceedings in relation to rent arrears is that rather than, obviously, wrapping the supports around them, children are receiving court summonses from Dublin City Council and South Dublin County Council in relation to the rent of their parents being behind. Can you imagine being ten years old, some letters come through the door, your name is on that post, and you pick that up and open it. What it says on that letter, that is effectively penalising, criminalising and shaming the child, is:

Dear ... [so-and-so; I will remove the name],

As an occupant of the property ... [again, I will remove the address], we wish to inform you that there is matter before the courts in relation to the above premises. The matter will be before the court on ... [it gives the date] in District Court No. 23, Four Courts, Inns Quay, Dublin 7. We recommend that you, as the occupant of the property, attend court on this date.

We are literally sending requests for children to come to court. A mother, if she has anybody to seek support from, may say that she is not bringing her child to that. However, if the child opens it, then the child is asking, "Am I in trouble? Am I poor? Can mammy not afford the rent? Are we going to be homeless?" Then the child brings the letter to the mammy, who has probably been trying to shield the child from the struggles they are experiencing within the home in terms of being able to pay the bills, and she is then forced and shamed into having to explain to the child the struggle they are in in terms of rent arrears. What if the mother brings the child to court? Why are we making a spectacle of families in the courts where the children have to sit by and watch?

It makes absolutely no sense as to why we would be effectively creating a potential criminal sanction for child occupiers. They have no responsibility. How can a ten-year-old pay the rent? They are on the rent, of course, because they live there in terms of how many people live in the house, but the only person responsible for making sure that the tenancy is paid and the rent is up to date, or to come up with a new rent agreement, is the leaseholder or parent.

That situation was in relation to a ten-year-old. Another situation was in relation to a 17-year-old. This person turned 18 and the parents were put out on the street. The 18-year-old went to put themselves on the housing list at 18 - they had just left school - and the local authority told them they could not go on the housing list, that they were now barred for two years because they broke their tenancy agreement. This was a child occupier. A child occupier was banned from going on the housing list because their parents could not deal with the cost-of-living crisis they were in being able to keep up with their rent. One of those families had been in the home for 42 years. It makes absolutely zero sense.

I am hoping the Minister of State is going to tell me it is an automation system and that it is not a human making this decision to send a child to court or ask a child to attend court or force a mother to have to explain to that child the difficult situation they are in. What I am hoping is that an automation system has spat these out and sent them to everyone in a house and that we can send some sort of ministerial direction to the local authorities to make sure the message is loud and clear that a child occupier who is under 18 should never receive one of these in the post. No family should be shamed and potentially criminalised for struggling. We want to deal with intergenerational poverty, inequality and all of those things, and this is definitely not the way to do it.