I agree with Senator Rabbitte and her comments towards the FAI. It does not really surprise me that its officials would come in to discuss safeguarding without a safeguarding officer, so I fully agree with the Senator's comments.

I wish to raise the income eligibility thresholds for social housing, which have not been revised since 2023. Since then, wages and social welfare payments have increased significantly with inflation and the cost of living putting pressure on people, but there has been no change to the social housing income eligibility thresholds. The result is that a growing number of people are now being removed from council waiting lists. In some cases, people are losing up to ten years of time on the list through no fault of their own. The low thresholds are also blocking people who are unable to afford private or cost-rental accommodation from getting on the council list and accessing housing assistant payment, HAP. It is unfair to people who are cut off. They are caught in the middle. They cannot afford the astronomical prices and they do not qualify for the housing list, so they are stuck in limbo. In Dublin City Council, a single person can have a maximum income of €40,000 to access public housing support, meaning someone making €39,000 a year would be considerably better off as a result of the support offered by HAP. Even less fair than that is that a single parent can only have a maximum of €41,000, which is an income far too low to properly provide for a child. The Government needs to raise social housing income eligibility thresholds as a matter of urgency and initiate a reform of income assessments and banding. People in need of public housing should not be denied access to council waiting lists or social housing supports because of outdated and badly designed eligibility rules and thresholds. I would appreciate it if the Minister could come in to look at that and redesign the eligibility criteria.