77. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to set out his response to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage’s report on homelessness published on 18 June 2026. [48577/26]

Sentiment score: 0.00

Last Thursday, the Oireachtas housing committee published an important report on homelessness. At the centre of that report is the call for the introduction of an emergency package of measures to prevent families and single people from becoming homeless, but also to get people out of emergency accommodation more quickly. Now that the Minister has had at least a week to consider the report, will he set out his initial response to its 14 recommendations? Will he let the House know whether it is his intention to bring forward an emergency response to finally get to grips with the ever-deepening homelessness crisis?

Sentiment score: -0.30

It is simply not the case that the Minister’s Department is already undertaking the key actions recommended in this report. If that were the case, we would not have wasted our time producing the report. Month on month, the number of adults, children, single people and pensioners falling into emergency accommodation is growing. That means the core recommendation of the report that we now need an emergency response seems to be ignored by the Government. There is an explicit call to fully reinstate the funding for social housing acquisitions, including for housing first and tenant in situ, and to remove the restrictions, something the Minister has set his face against, which is why the number of such acquisitions halved last year on the year before, resulting in many more people becoming homeless. Crucially, the volume of social homes that is being delivered is not meeting the need. In fact, on the basis of the most recent summary of social housing needs assessments, it will take 55 years to clear current and emerging social housing need. People are waiting ten and sometimes 14 years plus. I would really encourage the Minister to put in place a plan because if he is to have any hope of ending long-term homelessness by 2030 there needs to be a plan with clear targets. That is not in place at the moment and that is why our committee has recommended the 14 points in last week’s homelessness report.

Sentiment score: 0.12

The report called for the Minister to extend the youth homelessness strategy out to 2030. My understanding is that despite the fact the strategy expired last year, there is no intention to extend it. Yes, the Minister is working on the child homelessness strategy but there is no sight of it. Will it be out this year? Is there a clear timeline? Can the Minister confirm that? On the housing action delivery plans, it is still not clear whether that will specify not just the number of one, two and three beds but also, for example, very clear targets for every local authority for people with physical and intellectual disabilities as well as right-sizing requirements. More crucially, those plans will not be based on objective need because they will ignore about half of the gross social housing need in the functional areas of the local authorities. There is no talk from the Department about better co-ordinating and ensuring the Minister’s counterparts in the Department of Health and the HSE provide the wraparound supports to sustain tenancies beyond where they currently are. Yes, the Minister or the Housing Agency is reviewing HAP limits but we have no idea where that is at. Of course, two key recommendations, namely, the need for at least consideration of the re-introduction of emergency ban on no-fault evictions and a referendum on the right to housing, are not on the Minister’s agenda. Again I ask when will he introduce an emergency response, above and beyond what he is doing, to start seeing the homeless numbers fall?

Sentiment score: -0.05

79. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for an update on his review of the income eligibility thresholds for social housing support. [48578/26]

Sentiment score: 0.13

As the Minister knows, a growing number of working people, as a result of very modest increases in their wages, are being removed from local authority social housing waiting lists when their means assessment comes under review. I know the Minister is looking at this matter and his party colleagues and backbenchers from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are raising it with him regularly. Will he give us an update on the review of social housing income limits and some indication as to whether it is his intention to act on it this year?

Sentiment score: 0.29

There really is an urgency to progress and conclude the work of the Department. I strongly recommend in the first instance that there is an immediate increase in the income eligibility thresholds. I am strongly of the view, and I know the Minister is considering this, that beyond an immediate increase there needs to be a more rational system of linking those thresholds to an index, whether that is net household income or some other independent index, so the thresholds track that in real time. There is a need to look at the disregards, and whether carers' allowance, disability allowance and certain other payments should continue to be assessed is a matter of some concern. There is also the issue of secondary earners. We increasingly have a case where adults are being forced to live at home because of the housing crisis. That is having significant impacts on eligibility. I also urge the Minister to look again at the three month look-back income assessment. It is far too rigid. When there are significant changes in circumstance you are not seeing those being taken account. Significant one-off payments can be but not changes of income circumstance or of employment and that is creating real difficulties.

Sentiment score: 0.11

I again stress the urgency of this. The longer this takes the more families will lose their position on the list. I am dealing with a family in my constituency. Both are working and have had a modest increase in their income. They are currently homeless and in emergency accommodation through no fault of their own. They were recently given an offer of council accommodation but in the income reassessment, they were marginally above the threshold. We have had it reviewed, and the local authority has acted completely in compliance with the eligibility threshold. Those people are not only going to lose their more than ten years on the list but they now have no exit out of emergency accommodation because they simply cannot afford private rents from their own income. I am sure when the Minister talks to his own backbenchers he will hear that these real live cases are happening everywhere. There are three other issues I would ask the Minister to consider. The first is to completely get rid of band 3. There is simply no reason to have a third band. It is an out of date concept. There is an argument in the larger urban areas and their commuter belts to have a higher rate than a second band but I do not believe a third band is needed. I also urge the Minister to publish the research as soon as he can and, if possible, to engage with our committee, to not delay anything and to get the experience of committee members on the ground before he makes his final decision. Crucially, that decision needs to be made as soon as possible.

Sentiment score: -0.10