The Housing Income Ban system is broken and we need to go back to the old system.
That’s the view of Westport Councillor Chirsty Hyland.
At a meeting of the West Mayo Municipal District last week, he proposed that the current system be scrapped as the question was put to him by people looking to get a house if they should reduce their working hours to have a better chance of finding their own place to live.
Councillor Hyland says that the current criteria are taking the incentive away from people to work full hours.
The old system, he says, of applicants being taken on their merits, providing references and telling their story, as well as going through an interviewing process, is much better and fairer than what is in place now.
Furthermore, Councillor Hyland says that the Fresh Start Scheme for those who have been divorced or separated is also inadequate as not one person in his local area of Westport has been able to avail of the scheme.
The Independent Councillor has been speaking to Midwest Radio’s Rian Bailey, and started by outlining the problems with the Housing Income Ban system:
