I welcome the Minister, Deputy McEntee, to the House.
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Domestic Violence
I thank you, a Chathaoirligh, for affording me the opportunity to address the need for a domestic violence register in the country. I appreciate the Minister's taking the time to come to the Chamber to respond to this important Commencement matter.
Saturday, 1 October should have been Jennifer Poole's 26th birthday. She was a lovely, vivacious young woman with two young children. Very sadly her life was taken from her in April last year and this certainly should not have happened. At the recent Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis, Jennifer's brother, Jason, joined Deputy O'Callaghan and me to talk about the horrific trauma his family suffered, not just with the loss of Jennifer's life and the way her life was taken in just seven minutes in a brutal and vicious way, but the fact that Jennifer was taken from her family by a former partner who was known for domestic violence.
The main reason we had this conversation was to try to ensure a register of domestic abuse offenders could be set up. Jennifer was a strong woman. She had a previous relationship where sadly, she was subjected to domestic violence. She would have been very nervous of knowingly going into another relationship with someone who had a pattern of domestic abuse, but she did not know. Her former partner said he had been living in Spain for two years. Sadly, as her family found out later, she was subjected to domestic abuse, but had the strength, power and courage to leave her situation. This brings up so much for so many women and indeed for many men. Many choices have to be made and some people ultimately make the choice to stay in a relationship. Jennifer gathered her courage and wherewithal to ensure this man left her home but in a moment of vulnerability, she allowed him back in because he said he needed access to a warm shower. In the time after Jennifer's death one of the most difficult aspects of the case came to light - that her murderer had been jailed for more than two years for attacking his former partner with a knife. If a domestic violence register was in place in the same way as a sexual abuse register, there is no doubt but that An Garda Síochána and Jennifer would have been aware of his past and she would never have entered a relationship in this situation. It is clear we need a domestic violence register. It is absolutely something we need to implement.
Sadly as we know, violence against women is an epidemic in this country. In 2021 Women's Aid reported 28,096 disclosures of abuse and 96% of those supported on the freefone helpline were women. In the aftermath of the brutal death of Ashling Murphy, the women of Ireland came together in solidarity with the Murphy family. Many of us attended vigils outside Leinster House and around the country. The hurt, anger and sorrow was palpable and the Minister has put many measures in place since. She has doubled the number of places in refuges and we need to go further than that. We need to look at a number of areas but what Jason Poole has highlighted is an important issue.
At the time of Ashling Murphy's death, I stood here in this very spot and said, "As a person, I am horrified; as an aunt and friend to young women, I am frightened; as a woman, I am furious, but as a legislator, I am determined to respond."
That is what this Commencement matter is about. It is about responding, raising awareness and protecting those who need to be protected, so I ask the Minister what the Department will do to establish a domestic violence register and what the Department is doing to support local gardaí to deal with domestic violence cases.
I thank Senator O’Loughlin for tabling this issue specifically and more generally raising the issue of domestic violence and the work we are doing collectively to respond to it. We can all agree it is an issue that has not had the attention or focus it should have had for many years, but that is changing. While I will respond on a number of different fronts to the Senator's questions, I will say from the outset, having met Jason Poole and discussed the tragic circumstances of his sister's death - she was a beautiful young woman who should not have been killed in the way she was - I have asked this to be examined as a priority and that is ongoing.
In response to the Senator's last question about how we are supporting An Garda Síochána and how we are responding to this issue more generally, I published our most ambitious strategy to date on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence at the beginning of June this year. It is a whole-of-government strategy and is based very clearly on the four key pillars, namely, prevention, protection, prosecution and policy co-ordination. I assure this House and anyone else listening that our zero tolerance strategy is not the end achievement to our work in this area; it is just the start.
We hosted European counterparts last month at the Council of Europe ministerial conference on violence against women, and I explained to some of my colleagues exactly what we mean by "zero tolerance".
It means ensuring that strategies aimed at preventing and combating violence against women also address the specific role of men and boys in preventing violence. Zero tolerance means greater education and greater awareness to change attitudes and to teach respect from an early age. It means teaching our children equality, respect and healthy sexuality, again making sure that it is done in an age appropriate way. It means supporting victims with compassion and with care when they come forward and when they take what is an extremely brave step in coming forward and seeking help. It means effective training for all relevant professionals, including our medical professions, our legal professions, our doctors, our nurses, our Judiciary and so many others, in particular our gardaí. It means recognising the importance of long-term and systematic changes that need to happen and that is why there is a huge amount of structural changes happening within Government in terms of where services in the future will be provided and the establishment of a domestic violence agency.
It also means having robust legislation in place and Senator O'Loughlin mentioned the fact that the individual in question had served time for a previous offence against a partner. To make sure that we have effective sentencing, what I brought forward the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022 is an increase in the maximum sentence of assault causing harm from five years to ten years, and it passed through the Second Stage last week. We have seen too many cases where victims have had bones broken and where, as I mentioned before, sugar and boiling water thrown over them and where they have been stabbed, but the sentence has not been high enough because the bar has not been high enough. We need to make sure those options are there for the Judiciary. It also means making sure we tackle human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
The fundamental weapon we have in combating domestic violence is prevention. It is the core pillar on which our strategy is built but it is prevention that is in mind today when we talk about this topic. When Jason Poole talks about a register, it is with prevention in mind. We cannot change what has happened to Jennifer, unfortunately, but we can make sure insofar as we possibly can that this does not happen to another person, to another young woman. That is obviously what we all want to achieve here.
As I mentioned, setting up a domestic violence register was something I discussed with Jason Poole when we met earlier this year. I have spoken to him in the last few days. We have discussed this with Garda Commissioner Harris. I have had a number of conversations with the Garda Commissioner and we agreed that it should be included in the third national strategy as a priority for in-depth analysis and consideration. As Senator O'Loughlin will know, it is a key action in the strategy published in June. I have continued to engage with the Garda Commissioner on this matter, as recently as last week, and I am awaiting a report on this matter. It is important that I do not move ahead on something without understanding how it works in other jurisdictions, how it might possibly work here and the views and potential approaches of the people who are due to implement it. Simply importing a model from another jurisdiction with a different constitutional arrangement to our own, where we have a written Constitution and judicial oversight of the Oireachtas in our work on enacting legislation, runs a risk of potential challenges and also that it might not work in the same way. While there is a register in some areas of the UK, we have to look at how that would potentially work here. We do not want something to be challenged.
We also have other complications around the fact that we have European General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR, legislation that we need to comply with. We need to ensure there is no situation where a person could be falsely identified. All of these things have to be thought through. However, I stress there should never be a situation where someone's personal privacy overrides another person's right to be safe. I have always had that to the forefront of anything I do.
The Department of Justice is funding the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and the National Women’s Council to undertake research to identify and address issues arising from the interface between civil and criminal courts, where there might be a criminal trial happening where a person has attacked a partner and where there might be a civil trial happening where they are then seeking access to a child and maintenance. I am informed that the question of a register has been raised in that draft report and once I get that report and the report from the gardaí, we will see how the two could potentially work together. Instead of replicating something that might work in the courts, we will look how we could maybe merge the two together.
I reassure Senator O'Loughlin that work is ongoing with the Garda Commissioner and his team and with the specific family justice oversight group and on the work that has been commissioned by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and the National Women's Council of Ireland. I hope once I get the two of those we will be able to pave a pathway forward.
I thank the Minister, Deputy McEntee. I apologise that the clock was out by two minutes.
I was looking at the clock thinking I had more time.
No, we have a problem with the clock.
That is okay.
Senator O'Loughlin has one minute to reply.
Any time we are discussing domestic violence, it is important to say to those listening that if they recognise these signs in regard to somebody else or themselves, there is help and support out there. The helpline number is 1800 341 900.
I thank the Minister for her response. It is important and it is clear that this is a priority for the Minister and the Government given that the Minister is actively looking at setting up a register for those who have committed domestic violence. I accept that it is simply not good enough to adopt legislation from another jurisdiction because we are very blessed in that we have a Constitution and everything has to be constitutionally sound.
It is really important we keep the pressure on. Last Saturday was not the first time I heard Jason speak. Each time I hear him I hear the trauma, sadness and desperation. It is really important we deliver on this.
While this is obviously a key priority for Jason, I know there are many other issues he has been focused on and I am pleased to work with him and many others to make sure we can make those changes. We have seen an increase in reports and numbers of people going to the Garda reporting domestic violence and sexual offences over the last year. We can look at that in two ways. First, unfortunately with Covid-19, there have been new cases as well as an increase in violence across the board. Second, I see it as a positive in that more people are coming forward.
The whole focus of so much of what we are doing is that we can encourage people to come forward where they are victims, separate from prevention which is absolutely key, and that when people do come forward that as many measures as possible are in place through the criminal justice system and the courts system in support from individuals who come into contact with victims and survivors. It is just one part of a wider puzzle that would help and hopefully support people to get themselves out of difficult situations or to prevent them from getting into potentially very critical situations. This is a priority for me and something I will continue to work on.
Thalidomide Victims Compensation
I welcome Finola Cassidy to the Visitors Gallery. She is very welcome. I know she is an amazing champion. I commend the Senator on raising this issue. I welcome the Minister. The Senator has four minutes to set out his Commencement matter.
Go raibh maith agat, Acting Chairperson. I fully agree with your sentiments in welcoming Finola to the Public Gallery. Finola is the spokesperson for the Irish Thalidomide Association and it is fitting and appropriate that she should be in the House today to hear the response from the Minister. Two weeks ago tomorrow in Dáil Éireann, the Lower House, the Taoiseach responded to a question from Deputy Bacik based on the "Scannal" documentary which had been broadcast the night before. It laid bare the facts of the effect that the thalidomide drug has had on people in this country.
There are four women who are in their 90s and who have survived. They took the drug through no fault of their own. The drug was removed from the market 61 years ago next month. Even though it had been removed internationally, it was not removed in a timely manner in Ireland. There are four issues here that need to be responded to. First, it needs to be acknowledged by the Government that it did not act in a timely manner in terms of removing the drug and the consequences thereafter were as a result of this delay. Once the knowledge was available, the drug should have been removed instantaneously, as happened in other countries.
That should have been removed instantaneously as was the case in other countries. The second thing that needs to happen is that there needs to be a State apology delivered by the Taoiseach in Dáil Éireann, similar to other apologies that have happened in the context of other victims who were let down by the State. The third thing that needs to happen is negotiations need to happen immediately with the survivors to put in place an appropriate healthcare package that will deal with their needs going forward. There are just under 30 people who the State acknowledge have been damaged long term and permanently as a result of their mothers taking this drug. The fourth thing that needs to happen relates to the approximately 12 people internationally who have had an expert opinion that they have been affected as a result of this drug, and that needs to be acknowledged by the State. That would bring the number up to 40.
There are four asks, and they are clear. The first one is an acknowledgment in the first instance. The second is an apology, which everybody across the political divide appreciates needs to happen. The third is the compensation package in terms of healthcare supports and appropriate compensation needs and again, this is accepted across the political divide. The fourth relates to the remaining women who have not had an acknowledgement from the State that this drug has caused them the problems they have, even though irrefutable international evidence from renowned experts supports their case and indicates that this has happened. They are very simple asks. Court cases have been ongoing for the bones of a decade and they should not be ongoing. Quite frankly, the cost of these ongoing court cases would more than fund the care package that is required and the compensation that is needed.
The Taoiseach spoke in the Dáil almost two weeks ago. He gave a commitment that he would be back in touch with Finola Cassidy within two weeks. That two weeks will be up tomorrow, so this Commencement matter is timely. In the first instance, it reminds the Taoiseach of his commitment. I know that he is an honourable person and that he will follow up on it. It also reminds the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, and the Department that this scandal has been ongoing for a decade and that it needs to be resolved. Next month will be 61 years since this drug was removed from the shelves of Irish pharmacists and yet the consequences are still ongoing. The people have not been compensated. The people have not had an acknowledgement or an apology. I await the Minister of State’s response.
I thank the Senator, who made a crystal-clear ask. The Minister of State has four minutes to respond.
I want to thank Senator Conway at the outset and indeed many others for raising important matter and for providing me with an opportunity to speak about it in the House. I am sure that the Senator will appreciate that because a number of cases concerning thalidomide are before the High Court, it is not possible to comment on matters that are sub judice. However, the Government recognises that thalidomide survivors face very real challenges in everyday life in the context of their injuries.
I am glad to inform the House that the Minister met with members of the Irish Thalidomide Association in February. At that meeting, he listened to their health concerns and assured them of the Government's commitment to provide thalidomide survivors with the necessary health supports to meet their related needs. The HSE has designated a senior manager to liaise with Irish thalidomide survivors and assist them in accessing health and personal social services. Following the meeting with the association, the HSE thalidomide liaison commenced a process to develop recommendations for future planning and pathways for survivors’ healthcare needs now and into the future.
The recommendations will also inform the work that is already under way in the Department of Health to place the provision of these health and personal social supports on a statutory footing, as committed to by the Government.
Since 1975, the Government has provided financial assistance to each Irish thalidomide survivor, including an ex gratia lump sum and an ex gratia monthly allowance for life. The annual figure for the Irish monthly payments ranges from €6,175 to €13,313 for each individual. As the Senator said, there are currently 29 Irish people in receipt of these supports from the Department of Health. Irish survivors are also eligible for monthly payments and a range of annual special payments from the Contergan Foundation, which is established under German legislation. Both the German payments and the Irish ex gratia monthly payments made to survivors are exempt from tax, including deposit interest retention tax, and are not assessable as means for the purpose of Department of Social Protection payments. Each survivor is also eligible for a medical card on an administrative basis regardless of means. In addition, survivors are eligible for aids and appliances, equipment, housing adaptations and access to the full range of primary care and hospital and personal social services.
It is also important to note that the German Contergan Foundation has confirmed that since 2013, it is accepting applications from individuals for compensation for thalidomide-related injury. It is open to any Irish person to apply to the foundation for assessment of his or her disability as being attributable to thalidomide. Any Irish person who establishes that his or her injury is attributable to thalidomide will be offered appropriate supports by the Irish Government, commensurate with those currently provided to Irish thalidomide survivors. I assure the House that the Irish Government is committed to the continued support of the health and personal social service needs of Irish thalidomide survivors to enable them to live independent lives.
The Senator mentioned four issues, one of which was that the drug was not removed in a timely manner and the Government should have acted at that time. The Senator has called for a State apology in the Dáil. He also stressed the need for negotiations with survivors to ensure an appropriate healthcare package to continue. He also said that 12 further people have received expert opinions that they have also been affected by thalidomide. He asked for them to be included in the State's response to bring the number of cases that require acknowledgment to 40. I will bring those details to the Minister and will try to get the Senator a response as quickly as possible.
I know the Minister of State is going to meet Ms Finola Cassidy after this Commencement matter. I appreciate that and thank him for doing so. I also thank him for his reply. There is no time here. Six of the women who took this drug are in their 90s. These people, sadly, do not have an enormous amount of time left.
I know what is involved in organising a State apology. It needs to happen soon. There needs to be an acknowledgement that the State was wrong and acted in an inappropriate way by not removing the drug. Those things both need to happen quickly.
In respect of compensation, while I accept what the Minister of State has outlined in his reply, an awful lot more needs to be done. These people's lives have been impacted, and very seriously in some cases. They have not been adequately compensated at all. Their medical needs are not being dealt with in the way they ought to be. We need to urgently resolve the situation of the 12 people in this country who are suffering and are not being recognised by the State.
As time goes on, people's lives move forward. We are dealing with elderly people. We are dealing with 40 people who are struggling on a daily basis because of thalidomide. I ask the Minister of State to make a call to the Taoiseach's office to remind him and his officials of the commitment he made in the Dáil two week ago. The timeline outlined then expires tomorrow. I have no doubt but that the Taoiseach will want to honour his commitment. When the Minister of State goes to his office this evening, he might make that call.
I again thank the Senator for raising this important matter. I have heard the debates on this issue in the Houses in recent years. As I said, it is, unfortunately, not possible to comment on matters that are sub judice. I reiterate the Government's commitment to continuing to provide the range of supports, including monthly payments, health and personal social services, to thalidomide survivors. We want to continue to provide for the complex and unique health and social service needs of survivors to enable them to live with dignity, particularly as some of them are more than 90 years old.
I am confident the process underway to develop recommendations for pathways of care for survivors' current and future healthcare needs will greatly enhance the provision of these services. I also look forward to the development of statutory proposals, which will be informed by this process and will place the provision of these supports and services on a firm statutory footing. I will notify the Taoiseach and his office about meeting with the group as soon as possible.
Local Authority Staff
I wish to raise the issue of resourcing for the housing department of Limerick City and County Council, specifically the need for a dedicated team to drive affordable housing targets forward. Right now, the same staff are trying to keep their social housing targets on track while also having to share time to keep their affordable housing projects up to speed. Clearly, this is neither ideal nor sustainable. I will set out the context for what we are dealing with in Limerick so the Minister of State will understand the extent of the housing emergency. Homelessness figures have gone up to 10,805, including 3,220 children, throughout the State. The number of homeless children in need of emergency accommodation in the mid-west last August saw a 251% increase in the same period last year.
Rents are rising. The figure for Limerick is €1,400, which is way above housing assistance payment, HAP, limits. I took a look at daft.ie today. Just seven properties are available on daft.ie, three of which are completely out of the price range of any normal family. The HAP allowance is just €650 for a couple with one child but a two-bedroom apartment will cost them €1,500 per month. The HAP allowance for a single person is just €420 but a studio apartment in Limerick will cost him or her €1,300 per month, so there is no reality when it comes to the allowances and the soaring cost of rents in Limerick. We are running out of options for emergency accommodation. Indeed the homeless action teams have told us this. We also have the phenomenon of adult children stuck living their adult lives with their parents.
I think the Minister of State will agree with me that Limerick City and County Council has a huge task on its hands. Looking at the targets towards which it is working, approved homes are at 42% of the five-year target of 2,138 new homes. In other words, the council has a deficit of 1,247. I understand the focus for this year and next year is to acquire more land and gain more approvals to ensure the targets are met, but frankly, the council is nowhere near being able to do that as things stand. Again, the targets are particularly poor in some areas. In Castleconnell, where I live, there are 443 applicants and the current plan is for five new social or council houses. That is an appalling target.
We need significant additional resources within Limerick City and County Council to deal with this. An application was submitted to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage for funding for a dedicated affordable housing team in March 2022. It begs the following question. In the middle of a housing emergency, how long does it take the Department to make an approval? I heard from my colleague Councillor Sharon Benson today that, coincidentally, the council received a decision today regarding additional new staff.
Why has it taken seven months to make a simple decision to add resources to Limerick City and County Council? Furthermore, I understand the council made a request initially for 12 additional staff and then reduced it to ten, but what has been granted by the Government is just staffing of four, of which two are already in place, so after seven months of waiting, the decision of the Government is to add just two additional staff members. The Minister of State should bear in mind that once that funding is approved, as it apparently was this morning, we are probably looking at a further six months to advertise and interview and for people to give notice and actually fill those positions.
It has taken more than a year, during the worst housing emergency we have ever seen, for a decision to be made and for the relative follow-up to happen.
The Government’s Housing for All plan is not working. Overall targets for new social and affordable homes are falling short throughout the country, and that is no wonder. If every other council is waiting on resources just like that in Limerick, the national targets will continue to be missed.
I thank the Senator for his question regarding the application by Limerick City and County Council for a dedicated affordable homes team. In September 2021, the Government published its Housing for All strategy, which sets out plans to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 homes per annum over the next decade. Increasing the supply of affordable housing is a central element of Housing for All, with an ambition to deliver more than 55,000 new affordable and cost-rental homes in the period 2022 to 2030, with 28,730 of those homes being delivered over the next five years.
Housing for All is supported by a major investment package of more than €4 billion per annum through an overall combination of €12 billion in direct Exchequer funding, €3.5 billion in funding through the Land Development Agency and €5 billion in funding through the Housing Finance Agency. With the support of the housing delivery co-ordination office in the Local Government Management Agency, the Department undertook a review of the requirements for affordable housing staff resources in 18 local authorities with an identified strong demand for housing from households with an affordability constraint. Limerick City and County Council was one of those councils.
The housing delivery co-ordination office undertook a detailed analysis with each local authority to assess its existing housing delivery capacity and skill set and identified any additional staffing requirements, having regard to the level of affordable housing to be delivered in that local authority. Key consideration has been given to the type of structure and administrative or professional staff necessary to deliver affordable housing, the scale of the delivery programmes and alignment with the additional support provided for social housing delivery earlier in 2022. The staffing required and identified for Limerick is divided into both administrative and professional staffing grades and a higher requirement in most areas for administrative support is acknowledged due to the operation of the various schemes in terms of agreements, engagement with eligible applicants and other, longer term requirements.
Limerick City and County Council has developed a housing delivery action plan to underpin its delivery of social, affordable-purchase and cost-rental housing in the period to 2026. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage recently approved an application by Limerick City and County Council for funding of €1.8 million for 25 affordable homes in Castletroy, Limerick, under the affordable housing fund, which will be delivered in 2023. An application is ongoing with Limerick City and County Council for a dedicated homes team, notice of which the Senator received today. I have no doubt that any additional staff Limerick City and County Council receives will help expedite its efforts to deliver new affordable homes in key locations throughout the city and wider county.
I acknowledge that the Minister of State is handed a script to read out in response to these Commencement matters but, with respect, I request an answer as to why it has taken the Government seven months to decide to appoint new staff. Moreover, why has that decision been taken to appoint just two additional staff given Limerick City and County Council requested a team of ten, given it has been well acknowledged that the council, like so many other councils, is way behind its targets and given it has also been acknowledged that the Government is way behind its targets? Indeed, its target this year for social and affordable housing was 9,200 homes but at the halfway point it had delivered just 1,966. Similarly, its target for affordable housing was 2,100 but it had reached fewer than 700 by the halfway point of the year.
With the crisis getting worse month by month, how can the Minister of State explain the seven-month delay in appointing essential staff for the council, and where does this leave the people of Limerick, who are already in despair at the housing crisis? Are we looking at a future of adult children living adult lives in their parents' homes? Is that the best the Government can offer?
I must correct the Senator; the Government is on target to meet its social housing numbers this year. We are almost approaching the figure of 9,000 new social units having been added, which will be the key to resolving so many housing issues for our citizens, and we are on course to build in excess of 25,000 homes this year, which will meet our target.
That will be critical in implementing the Housing for All strategy. It is important to correct the record on that. The notion that we have only built in excess of 1,500 homes this year is almost farcical.
There were only 980 from 2020 and 2021.
The Senator should allow the Minister of State to finish.
There are 31 local authorities in the country. The Affordable Housing Act was put through this year and the fund was established. It is key to ensuring we will not be behind in making sure all local authorities have the resources. In many areas it is not about the resources; it is about councils getting good applications in and having their land serviced and ready to go for affordable housing.
The Minister of State is blaming the councils now.
Many can go through private developers and we have seen a number of acquisitions from the affordable housing fund in that regard.
Housing Policy
The Minister of State is welcome. I tabled this matter in order to ask the Government to consider increasing the income threshold for housing assistance supports from the current rate of €30,000 for a family in band 3 - which includes those in my county of Mayo - to €50,000. I have tabled this matter on foot of a motion that was passed by councillors in Mayo calling for just that. We have been looking for this for a very long time. It is quite obvious that the income thresholds that are currently in place are extremely low. There are three bands, with €30,000 as the upper limit in a county like Mayo. It goes up above €40,000 in Dublin. That is still extremely low by any standard. It essentially precludes low-income working families and households from accessing social housing supports. We need to change this. We need to make sure social housing is available for many more people. We know the demand and the need is there. I do not think there is any public representative in this country who does not know about the need to expand the threshold and increase the income limits. I look forward to the Minister of State's reply. I know there is a review ongoing in the Department on this issue. I would welcome an update that I might pass on to my colleagues on Mayo County Council.
I thank the Senator for tabling this matter. I also thank her council colleagues for putting forward such a timely motion, which is very important to ensure that people have access to secure housing.
A standard system for assessing applicants for social housing support was introduced in 2011. The income bands and the authority area assigned to each band were based on an assessment of the income needed to provide for a household's basic needs, plus a comparative analysis of the local rental cost of housing accommodation across the country. Housing for All was published in September 2021 and contained a commitment to reviewing income eligibility for social housing. The review has been completed and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has recently approved implementation of its recommendations. The review is now available on the Department’s website.
On foot of the review, the Minister has approved proposals to scope and develop options for a revised or new social housing income eligibility model. The exercise will assess the suitability of the current framework, having regard to the significantly changed landscape since it was introduced, and will make recommendations for an approach and income thresholds for Mayo and all other counties that reflect current and future needs. This work will commence shortly under the aegis of the Housing Agency, which will be tasked with commissioning it. It is expected that the work will be completed in the first quarter of 2023.
Pending its completion, the Minister has also approved changes to the social housing income eligibility bands for five local authorities, namely, Carlow, Clare, Galway county, Laois and Westmeath. These counties have been moved from band 3 to band 2 of the income eligibility framework. Accordingly, the baseline income eligibility threshold for these areas has increased from €25,000 to €30,000. The change reflects the significant movement in rents in these areas in recent years and ensures local authority areas with similar accommodation costs will continue to be grouped together in the respective bands. The changes came into effect on 1 October last. The Minister believes it is now appropriate to await completion of the substantive review before deciding on the revised income threshold levels for Mayo and other counties, given the potential impact of any changes that will arise.
The Senator was very concise in her request and the Minister of State was very concise in his reply, so they both have extra time.
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.ie or 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?
I thank Senator Chambers for raising this matter. I will raise it with the Minister. When speaking last night in the debate on RTÉ1, the Minister committed to having the review before the end of the year. I will communicate this to him and to the Housing Agency, which is under the aegis of the Department, to speed up that review. I really do appreciate that so many citizens are caught in a trap of not being able to access housing and government supports, which are so vital for them to sustain a tenancy. This is very important. We really do need to ensure that this report is expedited insofar as possible. We will work to do that. I will talk to the Minister, on foot of what the Senators has said, in order to see if we can get it completed before the end of the year. I really do appreciate the urgency. As I travel around the country, this issue is raised by many councillors on a weekly basis.
Cuireadh an Seanad ar fionraí ar 3.18 p.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ar 3.30 p.m.
Sitting suspended at 3.18 p.m. and resumed at 3.30 p.m.