Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The concern - and it is a genuine concern - that has motivated us in bringing forward this Private Members' motion is that the capital funding announced by the Minister's Department to date, and the new restrictive eligibility criteria, will result in fewer tenant in situ purchases this year than last year, even if the demand is the same. That is the central concern here. The total capital allocation of €325 million, as the Minister said, is across four acquisition streams. That funding, at current average acquisition prices, will deliver fewer homes this year than last year or the year before. That is simply a fact.

The restrictive criteria the Government is introducing make no sense. Reasonable refurbishment costs are a vital element for this scheme to work, and without it, many properties will go unbought. Prioritising one group of vulnerable homeless people inevitably means deprioritising and ultimately excluding another group of very vulnerable homeless people.

They are both equally as deserving of prioritisation. Currently, they receive that and that should not change.

The two-year rule makes no sense. There seems to be a suggestion that somehow, somebody somewhere is gaming the system. I am not saying the Minister is saying that, but some of the people advising him may believe that despite the fact that there is no evidence. The very rigid adherence on a notice to quit rather than the slightly more flexible approach that has been in evidence over the past period is regrettable.

The Minister says the scheme is not suspended. On the ground, that is not the truth. If I call a local authority today as a landlord, I will be told no new applications are being taken until the Minister has made his decision and the circular has issued. Hundreds of applications made last year are awaiting a final decision and cannot be processed. I do not know what definition of the word "suspended" the Government operates on, but for me, that is a suspension.

All I am asking the Minister to do is, if he is not willing to listen to us, to talk to the people on the front line. Talk to the people preventing homelessness in the statutory and voluntary sector and ask them if they think this will make the scheme better or worse. They will tell him it will make it worse. I am urging him to reconsider. Please, between now and when he signs off on the circular, do not make these changes, do not make more people homeless who otherwise would not be so. Do the right thing and scrap these proposed changes.

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