167. Deputy Séamus McGrath asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to outline a timeframe for the upward revision of social housing qualifying income limits. [37496/26]

Sentiment score: 0.00

I thank the Minister and welcome his reply. As he said, the limits were last revised over three years ago, and as I understand it, they went up by €5,000 in the basic change. Unfortunately, that was not sufficient at the time, but it was a welcome increase. We certainly need to look at that group who find themselves outside the social housing qualifying limit but do not find themselves within reach of any other support scheme, whether that is cost rental, affordable purchase or any other scheme. We need to try to address the needs of that particular cohort of people - those individuals, couples and families. I also ask that this be more than just keeping in line with inflation, general growth or the need for an adjustment. This needs to be a fairly significant reform of the system. We need to try to capture as many as possible of that group who have been left behind . The Minister alluded to that in his reply, so I encourage him to be bold and brave with this, and to try to do something that will capture as many of that group who have been left behind as possible.

Sentiment score: 0.39

I again thank the Minister for that. I am encouraged by his words. I ask that this happen as quickly as possible. If a broader review is required, the Minister might increase the limits initially while that review is undertaken, because as public representatives we are all dealing with people who are on very low incomes but find themselves outside the limits. It is a disincentive to work; that is the reality of the situation. If people find themselves pulling back on their working hours, their working week and so on so that they stay within the limits, that is not good enough at a time when we need everybody engaging in employment to the best of their ability. This is currently a disincentive for people to work or to gain additional employment and so on. People do not want to find themselves in that position; that is my experience. They want to be able to fully engage in employment while also qualifying for social housing. As a State, that is what we should be doing, and it is what we did decades ago. People were working and still qualified for social housing. We need to go back to that model. I welcome the Minister's words here this evening but I emphasise the urgency of this. It needs to happen.

Sentiment score: 0.19