Housing and Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-14
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Lynn Ruane (IND), University of Dublin

I will ask a brief question. My understanding is that you have to be legally resident to apply for social housing currently. I may be wrong on that, but I do not think I am. You already have to be legally resident. You have to be lawfully resident to receive social housing. I do not understand why a provision is going into legislation where it asserts something that is already the case. It feels performative. It feels like the Department can then say that it has introduced legislation so that people who are not legally resident here cannot get social housing. It feels like a bit of a trick on the public, the people who have concerns or who have spouted stuff like, "Homes should only be for the Irish." There is now a legal provision for something that already exists rather than communicating that you have to be lawfully resident in this country to access social housing. If it is the case that such a requirement is already in place, I want the Minister to explain why he is putting it into legislation when it already exists.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:15+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-14