Sinn Féin member of the Public Accounts Committee Imelda Munster TD today described the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) as ‘a poor substitute for social housing’ at a hearing of the Committee to discuss Department of Housing rent support schemes.
Having previously met with the Department last November, the Committee scheduled a second meeting regarding the appropriation accounts of the department to consider the efficacy of spending on schemes such as the HAP, Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) and Enhanced Long Term Social Housing Leasing Scheme.
Teachta Munster said:
“This year will see the amount of money spent by the Department of Housing on subsidising private landlords eclipse €1 billion, representing nearly a third of all government spending on housing.
What the data says about fixing our dysfunctional housing market rte.ie - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rte.ie Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Department of Housing data shows that a total of 39,065 new social homes had been delivered in the five-year period to the end of 2020. This included 22,977 new builds or refurbished local authority properties that had been taken out of use. Local authorities had bought 10,867 homes for tenants and leased 5,221, a form of provision criticised for leaving public bodies without ownership of the property asset when the lease ends.
âNo other local government issue generates so much of a councillorâs workload as is the case with housing and homelessness,â said Mary Hoade, president of the Association of Irish Local Government, the representative body for the Stateâs 949 local councillors.
The nine tax benefits and social welfare schemes you could be claiming if classed as a low earner
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Thank you for subscribingWe have more newslettersShow meSee ourprivacy notice This week saw the Department of Finance publish its Stability Programme Update (SPU) and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said the report does envision a “scarring” of the economy.
At a webinar event on housing last month, the chief executive of Cairn Homes, Michael Stanley, produced what he described as a âmind-blowing statisticâ. It related to home ownership rates among 25 to 39-year-olds. Stanley noted that the percentage of this age cohort that owned their own homes had dropped from 22 per cent in 2011 to 16 per cent in 2016, according to the official census data, and that based on his companyâs own research it was now about 12 per cent. He described the trend as âextraordinary and very worryingâ.
It was an interesting fault line for the boss of one of the largest homebuilders in the State to pick up on. Home ownership has collapsed among adults of a prime working age â a reflection of surging house prices and a lost decade of wage growth since the financial crisis. Owning a property has become increasingly concentrated among older age cohorts. In 2016, 85 per cent of 65-year-olds owned their own homes, while just 14 per c