An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-28
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Pauline Tully (SF), Cultural and Educational Panel

I also want to raise a housing issue, which is the social housing income thresholds. Currently, there are three bands. Band 1 is for city areas and commuter counties around Dublin and €40,000 is the threshold, band 2 is €35,000 for a number of other counties and band 3, which County Cavan is in, is only €30,000. I was contacted by a person yesterday. She is a single parent with four children who is working and she is above the social housing income threshold for Cavan. She has just received an eviction notice even though she has been renting the same house for 11 years. She has not got a hope of getting another rental at a price she can afford. There is very little available and what is available is priced out of the market. She cannot look for housing supports, such as HAP. Single people do not have a hope if they are working. It is not much over the minimum wage. Most families also get the working family payment, which they need, but it pushes them further over the threshold. It is means that they have nowhere to live. They are forced to go back and live with other family members or to seek homeless accommodation.
We need a proper debate on the social and affordable housing targets and having a good look at what is happening in each area. I call on the Minister for housing to come in here to address this issue, so we can have a good debate and really look at what is happening around specifically social housing, thresholds for social housing and supports for people who are just above the threshold. There is nothing there. They do not have the option of getting a mortgage and buying. We need to see a lot more affordable houses available and vacancy rates addressed.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:52+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-28