Mayo TD raises social housing threshold cases as Taoiseach signals support for increase

Mayo Fine Gael TD Keira Keogh has told the Dáil of local families being locked out of social housing for "earning too much" while still unable to afford the private market, as she pressed the Taoiseach on raising income thresholds for the county.

Deputy Keogh said Mayo is currently in band 3 for social housing income limits, set at €30,000, €5,000 lower than neighbouring Galway's band 2 threshold of €35,000.

She said this disparity does not reflect house price variation within Mayo itself, pointing out that the average price in Westport last year was €327,000, compared with €155,000 in Kiltimagh.

She said she had been contacted by Councillor Peter Flynn, chairperson of Mayo County Council's housing strategic policy committee (SPC), on behalf of committee members asking whether the bands would be reviewed.

Deputy Keogh also raised the case of a separated single mother of two, brought to her attention by Councillor Donna Sheridan, who is trying to leave the family home but does not qualify for social housing despite earning only slightly above the threshold.

The woman, salaried at €36,000, does not qualify even when allowances for her children are taken into account.

Deputy Keogh said Councillor Sheridan had argued the current thresholds exclude "our SNAs, our carers and the people who keep the backbone of the country going."

Deputy Keogh said she had raised the issue previously via parliamentary question in December, when she was told the Department was examining existing income limits.

Responding, the Taoiseach said he was "in favour of increasing social housing income thresholds substantially and significantly," and confirmed he had discussed the matter with Minister for Housing James Browne and Minister of State John Cummins.

He said family composition should also carry more weight in eligibility assessments, with larger families given a higher weighting.

Mr Martin pointed to the previous increase of €5,000 applied to all local authorities in 2023 under the Housing for All review, and said "there are all these traditional reasons we cannot do something, but we did it" then.

He noted complications around coupling any threshold increase with the Housing Assistance Payment, and said the Minister would bring proposals back to Government and the Dáil.

He also raised a separate concern, that increases in income for those already on housing lists for several years could push them out of eligibility, saying "we have to watch that as well."

He said there are many cases similar to those raised by Deputy Keogh, and that this represents "the general direction of travel that we want to go in as a Government."

Deputy Keogh welcomed the Taoiseach's remarks and said she would relay them to the housing SPC.