People who work should get priority on social housing waiting lists, Minister of State Robert Troy has said.
He originally made his remarks in a submission to Westmeath County Council, which is currently reviewing its strategic housing policy.
“I’ve made a submission to that strategic policy committee to ask them to see is there any way we can enhance the fairness of the scheme of letting priorities,” Mr Troy told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland on Monday.
He said people who work should get “additional points” in a “weighted system” but he does not believe this should disadvantage those who cannot work due to issues outside their control.
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“I’m not talking about excluding people who cannot work because they have a full time disability, full time carers, perhaps single parents with no access to child care,” he said.
The Fianna Fáil TD for Longford-Westmeath is Minister of State at the Department of Finance. In 2022, he resigned from his role as Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise for failing to declare property interests.
He said he had not discussed his idea with Minister for Housing James Browne.
The Government’s “priority” was to bring housing waiting lists down, and he said they are “making progress on that” and “putting huge money behind that”.
However, he said there will always be a waiting list for social housing, and that prioritising workers would “incentivise people to work”.
“It’s right and proper that we have a safety net in place for people when they need it, but it should never be a desire for people to choose unemployment and social welfare over work,” Mr Troy said.
Responding to Mr Troy’s suggestion, Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said he was “trying to set one group of social housing applicants against another suggesting some deserve council housing more than others because of their employment status”.
Mr Ó Broin also said there was “no legal basis in the 1966 Housing Act to do what Minister Troy is calling for”.
“I have written to the Minister for Housing James Browne asking him if he intends to bring forward amending legislation to give effect to his ministerial colleagues’ proposals.”
Asked whether the Minister would consider the proposals outlined by Mr Troy, the Department of Housing said it was “a matter for local authorities”.
“The allocation of local authority dwellings to qualified households, including the prioritisation of certain categories of households, is a matter for the local authority concerned.
“Legislation requires all local authorities to make an allocation scheme which specifies, among other things, the manner of, and the order of priority for, the allocation of dwellings to households on the housing and transfer lists.
“The prioritisation afforded to particular household types or classes of households and the allocation of social housing support are a matters solely for the local authority concerned,” a spokesman for the Department said in a statement.
