Income thresholds for social housing to rise by €5,000

Government to make more people eligible for social housing after housing minister comes under fire for failing to act on a year-old report on eligibility

Taoiseach Micheál Martin told his Fianna Fáil party colleagues the Government will sign off on increases to social housing thresholds. File picture: Leah Farrell/Rolling News

The Government is to sign off on increases to social housing thresholds which will see more families qualify for a home, the Taoiseach has told a private meeting of his party.

Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien had come under fire for failing to act on a report on social housing eligibility which has sat on his desk for a year.

The current income eligibility limits, which were introduced in 2011, mean that to qualify for social housing, the maximum amount a single person can earn is €35,000 in areas including Dublin, Kildare, and Cork City. However, the income threshold is set at the lower limits of €30,000 and €25,000 in some local authority areas.

For families, the thresholds are set between €30,000 and €42,000 depending on the local authority area, with the calculation based on the average net income earned in the previous 12 months.

The Government's Housing For All blueprint committed it to reviewing income eligibility for social housing.

Micheál Martin told the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting that the eligibility criteria for social housing will be expanded to allow more people apply from the new year. From January, the income thresholds for social housing will be increased by €5,000 in every local authority.

The new higher income limits will be signed off on by the Government next week.

Mr Martin also told party colleagues that a new legislative amendment to the planning act is being finalised which would allow the acceleration of social and affordable housing on State land.

He pointed to the commencement of more than 600 cost-rental and affordable homes in Shanganagh, Co Dublin, which is being driven by the Land Development Agency (LDA), stating this is an example of the scaled delivery the Government wants to see across the country.

Meanwhile, a move to reopen the Irish embassy in Iran was deemed "despicable" at the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting.

The issue was raised by a number of members including Carlow-Kilkenny TD John Paul Phelan as well as senators Regina Doherty and Mary Seery Kearney.

The private meeting heard that there are just 18 Irish citizens in the country at present. Ireland is planning to reopen its embassy in the Iranian capital of Tehran but Iranian women — and some men — have been protesting against the Iranian government’s severe restrictions on their daily life since late September after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

Ms Doherty told her party's meeting that if the reasoning for opening the embassy was trade, that this would be out of kilter with Ireland's support of human rights and Ukraine. She asked that the business case for the reopening be published.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney did not attend the meeting as he was speaking on the issue of neutrality in the Seanad at the time.

Separately, both Cork North Central TD Colm Burke and Cork-based Senator Jerry Buttimer raised the need for a passport machine to be placed in Cork. Senator Sean Kyne, meanwhile, raised what he called "unacceptable" levels of delay at University Hospital Galway, according to sources.