Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 10 October 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion

1:30 pm

Photo of Eoin Ó BroinEoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)

I have a supplementary question on that. I have many other questions, but I am over time. One of the concerns I have is, given where the rents are, I suspect that a significant number of people are applying but are being refused on the basis that the rent will be more than a third of their take-home pay. Are the AHBs monitoring the position in that regard? Could they share figures on it? I am interested to know, across all the cost-rental providers, what percentage of the total number of applicants for any given scheme are being refused on affordability grounds. Mick Byrne’s research is very good but it does not really deal with this. Are we seeing a growing cohort of people, by income, who are finding it difficult because the rents have trended up? Do any of the AHBs have figures of the percentage of people excluded on affordability grounds? If not, is that something they would be willing to share with us? We are all big advocates of cost rental here. We have all spent years arguing for it. It is important that we get it right at the start. I know from talking informally to some providers that not only is it a very large number of people who are excluded on affordability grounds. That cohort, with each new scheme, is growing as a percentage of the total number of applicants who apply.

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