Adam Higgins has written a story published in today's newspaper about a young woman named Lauren. She is now waiting five months for her housing assistance payment, HAP, application to be processed. She is one of thousands. The people processing it in Fingal County Council have been advised by management in a message sent to staff and seen by The Sun:

Citizens requesting an update on their HAP application should not be advised that it is taking [x] number of months or weeks. Nor should they be advised what month we are currently processing. The advice should be that we are dealing with a large volume of applications and it is simply not possible to indicate when they may be processed.

It is really hard to find a landlord who will take HAP. It is €2,000 a month for rent. Factor in a deposit, plus five months' waiting, and that is €12,000. With the greatest of respect, if Lauren had €12,000 she would not need HAP.

I ask the Taoiseach to do two very simple things. Will he engage with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to see if additional staff can be provided to Fingal County Council? I have already written to the Minister; he is well aware of this situation as it is in his constituency. Will the Taoiseach instruct the Department of Social Protection to give people the money they will need, pending their applications being resolved?

These people are in desperate circumstances. The wait is unacceptable at this stage.

Extraordinary levels of funding have been allocated to housing and to councils in respect of HAP. I cannot administer every council or office in respect of this. They should be developing the capacity to administer this in a timely manner for people such as Lauren, who is waiting too long. I will relay this to the Minister, who is aware of it. I have no doubt he will get involved to try to resolve the issues.