Cabinet Committees
Dail Éireann — 2023-12-12
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Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

I want to try to explain the cost-rental scheme to the Taoiseach again. I know it is a bit technical but it is a Government scheme. The point about cost-rental housing is that it is supposed to be for people who are above the social housing income threshold but below €66,000 in net income. However, as well as the income criterion there is an affordability criterion which means the rent must be no more than 35% of a person's income. People have to meet those two criteria. I have two examples, but it involves thousands of people most likely, one of a person earning €42,000 and the other of a person earning €46,000, both of whom are eligible on income grounds but not on affordability grounds because the rent is being set at a level that is higher than 35% of their income. That means there is no scheme for them. This potentially affects thousands of workers, precisely those for whom the scheme is supposed to provide affordable accommodation. This is a basic failure to align the cost-rental criteria and I am asking the Taoiseach to address it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-12-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:31+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-12-12