Social Welfare Payments
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-15
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Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

I appreciate that response from the Minister and I accept it. These payments come under exceptional needs, essentially. If I might take the opportunity in my second supplementary contribution to raise another issue under exceptional needs, albeit under the same sort of general heading, there is the moving-in payment for people when they are allocated a house. There is a problem with that. I will give an example.
Katie and her family got an allocation due to a transfer from a terrible situation just before Christmas, but she cannot apply for the moving in allowance. She is delighted about her new place and just moved in yesterday, but all that was in the house was two mattresses and a fridge. That is where she, her kids and her partner had to sleep. You cannot apply for the moving in allowance until you get your keys, even though she was allocated the house before Christmas. That does not make sense. That is just one example. As soon as you can confirm you have a place to move into and you are eligible for the moving in allowance, you should be able to get it there and then and not have to wait until you are in with the keys, which means either you have to continue to stay in your old place and pay two rents, which happens to some people, or, for weeks, you and your kids are going around with no carpets, no fridge and no this, that or the other. By the way, the heating was not working when she moved in either.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-15