I welcome the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and I call Deputy Doherty.
Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Leis an Rialtas seo, tá praghsanna tithe imithe tríd an díon agus tá úinéireacht tí anois níos deacra agus níos deacra agus níos faide ar shiúl do ghlúnta ár ndaoine. Léirigh tuarascáil an lae inniu ó Chumann na Seirbhéirí Cairte go bhfuil ardú de bhreis is €90,000 tagtha ar chostais tithíochta nua i mórcheantar Bhaile Átha Cliath amháin, ó tháinig an Rialtas in oifig trí bliana ó shin.
Today's report by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland on the cost of new housing delivery lays bare the depths of the housing crisis. The cost of new-build homes has gone through the roof. In the greater Dublin area which includes Counties Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow, the average cost of a new-build home is now more than €461,000, an increase of €90,000 since you and your Government took office three years ago. Average earnings in Dublin alone are less than €37,000 which means that the vast majority of workers and families in the greater Dublin area have no chance, no hope, of being able to afford to purchase a new-build home under this Government. It also extends beyond Dublin. The average cost of a new home in Cork now stands at €433,000 and on it goes throughout the State.
This reflects the abject failure of the Government's housing plan because you have not turned a corner. As the prices of new builds go through the roof, housing is becoming less affordable year by year with workers and families locked out. That is why home ownership is falling under the Government. This comes just a week after we learned that new rents have soared by 12% in the past year with tenants now forking out an average of €4,000 more per year to their landlord since you took office three years ago. If we turn to the Government's record on delivery, on affordable purchase homes the results are equally damning with zero affordable homes delivered in 2020, zero affordable homes delivered in 2021, only 323 homes delivered in 2022 and only 101 affordable homes delivered in the first half of this year. Are they even affordable? In areas of south Dublin, the price of these affordable purchase homes range between €408,000 and €435,000.
Judging by this record it seems that everybody knows that we are in the grip of a housing crisis except this Government. Is it any wonder that the Banking and Payment Federation's latest mortgage report found that the average first-time buyer's age has risen to 35, the oldest since records began. Is it any wonder that home ownership is falling under your Government? Is it any wonder that generations of our people are losing hope and looking to build a life and future abroad?
Today's findings by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland lays bare the failure of this Government's housing policies. House prices continue to rise, homes are less affordable, rents continue to soar and home ownership is becoming more difficult, more distant and more expensive for an entire generation. What is the Minister's response to today's report? What responsibility does he take for this staggering rise and house costs? What is he going to do to change direction and deliver affordable homes for workers and families? This is happening on his watch. He is the Minister for housing who is overseeing the largest increases in rents since records began. House prices have gone up by €90,000 since he took office. In the greater Dublin area, a family now needs to have a joint income of €127,000 to be able to purchase a home. That is why homeownership is dropping under his Government. That is why his plan is failing. That is why people are giving up hope in him and his Government.
Anois, an fhírinne. Ar dtús, caithfidh mé a rá go bhfuil ár bplean ag obair. Tá sé ag obair anois. Níl na buntáistí á fháil ag gach duine fós. Thógamar 30,000 teach nua anuraidh agus tá mé cinnte go mbeimid ábalta níos mó ná sin a dhéanamh i mbliana. Thógamar níos mó tithe sóisialta anuraidh ná mar a tógadh le 50 bliain. Arís, táim cinnte go mbeimid ábalta níos mó ná sin a dhéanamh i mbliana. Tá tithe ar phraghas réasúnta le ceannacht don chéad uair le cúig bliana déag anuas. Don chéad uair riamh, tá tithe á ligean ar cíos ar phraghas réasúnta tríd an cost-rental scheme, agus ceadaíodh morgáistí do níos mó ná 25,000 ceannaithe anuraidh freisin. Táim cinnte go mbeidh tuilleadh mar sin á dhéanamh againn i mbliana. Is é sin an fhírinne. Tá ár bplean Tithíocht do Chách ag obair. Níl plean ar bith ag Sinn Féin. Níl aon phlean ag Sinn Féin atá cosúil le Tithíocht do Chách. Táim cinnte go leanfaidh an dul chun cinn atá á dhéanamh i gcúrsaí tithíochta i mbliana agus le linn na bliana seo chugainn.
Regarding the SCSI report, Deputy Doherty neglected to say that the SCSI is very clear in its support for Government schemes like the First Home scheme, the help-to-buy grant and the development levy waiver to boost home ownership and reduce costs. I remind the Deputy that Sinn Féin is opposed to all three. His party is opposed to all of them. Potential first-time buyers watching in here today need to know that Sinn Féin does not want to give them back the €30,000 in tax they have earned to help towards the deposit. The thousands of people who have been approved under the First Home scheme, many of whom are renters stuck in a rental trap, also need to know that Deputy Doherty, his housing spokesperson and his whole party here are opposed to that - a scheme that is actually working.
The Deputy regularly comes here and rails against the Government. That is fine; that is his wont. However, as the main Opposition party, he has a responsibility to actually propose alternatives. We were waiting for his housing plan that Deputy Ó Broin said he would bring forward in July. He never brought it forward. Instead, a month after the budget he produced Sinn Féin's alternative budget. The alternative budget has two and a half pages committed to what it would do on housing. Sin é, two and a half pages and nothing else. Deputy Doherty may want to clarify this with his colleague next door to him.
Another way we are actually getting families into homes is by tackling vacancy and dereliction. An deontas folúntais, Croí Cónaithe, has had over 5,000 applications with nearly 3,000 approvals. Even though Sinn Féin Deputies come in and ask me to alter the scheme, Deputy Doherty's party opposes it. It made no provision whatsoever in its alternative budget for any funding whatsoever for that grant. He might inform the House today what his position is on that. I noted earlier this week on Tuesday night - maybe it was after the day the you had - that you have also now stopped talking about bringing back a moratorium on evictions. You have dropped that because you know the measures we have brought forward, like the tenant in situ scheme, are working. This is serious politics. Government is about implementing policy and making a difference for people.
I am not even going to respond-----
The Deputy cannot.
----- to all the misleading points the Minister has made because it is complete deflection. What I will respond to is him stating that his plan is working. I genuinely ask him or any of the those who were laughing and heckling there if they think it is working when we have seen the record level of rent increases - since records began - at 12%. Does he think it is working when house prices in the greater Dublin area have increased by €90,000 since you folk took office three years ago?
Do you think it is working for the renters who are struggling and who are now paying €4,000 more to their landlords every single year since the Government took office? Does he think it is working for the nearly 4,000 children who woke up in emergency accommodation today? I know where my party stands. I know where we stand. The Government’s plan is failing and failing dramatically.
Hear, hear.
Every bit of evidence shows it. What is the Minister going to do about the report that is published today? The report states very clearly that house prices in the greater Dublin area have increased by €90,000 since he became Minister for housing, over the past three years. It has told us clearly that to purchase a home, you need a joint income of €127,000-----
Time is up now, Deputy.
-----when the average income in Dublin is €37,000. What is the Minister going to do? He has no plan.
Time is up.
He has no ideas. He is out of ideas and he is out of time. That is the reality.
Deputies
Hear, hear.
What we need to do and what we are doing is to increase supply across all tenures. Deputy Paul Donnelly knows that very well because he has been out turning sods with me his own constituency at the largest social and affordable housing schemes in the country. These are in Mulhuddart and in Donabate-Portrane, which is my own area. There are 1,200 homes, which the Deputy’s party objected to, by the way. We are increasing supply and we will do more than 30,000 homes this year. Between 40% and 50% of those will be supported by the State and we have a very strong pipeline going into next year. We are turning the corner on housing delivery.
Challenges certainly remain. The single biggest priority is to enable those who do not have a home to get a home. Yet, all Sinn Féin does oppose every measure we brought forward. I refer to the Land Development Agency, which is delivering hundreds of homes this year and thousands next year, but Sinn Féin is against it. It is against all the grants that are available to first-time buyers - all of them. Inexplicably, the Sinn Féin party continues to object to housing all over the country. Deputy Doherty can ask Deputy Ó Snodaigh, who is behind him, as to why he objected to 200 social and affordable homes in his own constituency.
He did not.
You have no idea.
That is a lie.
We will now move to the Leader of the Labour Party, Deputy Bacik-----
You are lying to the Dáil.
Please do not accuse a Member of the House of lying, Deputy Ó Snodaigh.
Sorry, a Cheann Comhairle, but when-----
Do not.
-----somebody starts up here and tells an untruth to this House-----
Withdraw it.
------it is a lie is anybody else’s terminology, but in this House we have to call it "an untruth". It is an untruth that I objected to the houses that the Minister is talking about.
Hear, hear.
What did you do?
It is an untruth. It is a lie.
Cad a dhearna thú? What did you do?
I thank the Deputy. Resume your seat now.
Deputies
Hear, hear.
It is about time you were called out.
One amongst many of you.
Please do not exacerbate the problem.
In your area, Deputy Paul Donnelly-----
(Interruptions).
No. Would everyone please have a bit of manners? I call the leader of the Labour Party.
As we know, €127,000 is the combined salary that a couple must now earn to buy a three-bedroom, semi-detached house in Dublin, according to the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland today. The Government is pricing far too many people out of a home and could do much more to address this, such as by passing our Labour Party Bill to implement the Kenny report, or by launching a proactive construction recruitment programme to bring in more construction workers. Yet, we know that some of the price increases that people face when trying to buy a home are driven by delays and flaws in the planning system.
I want to focus on planning. Planning law in Ireland should be fit for purpose but our planning system is broken, mired in controversy, highly centralised and desperately slow. It is unfit to meet the needs of our growing population. The Minister acknowledged this when he promised us radical reforms but the Planning and Development Bill falls well short of the mark. He dropped the "use it or lose it" clause. There are concerns about the constitutionality of some aspects of the Bill. It will not address some key failures in our planning system. I want to hear more from the Minister about real reforms, such as on the Labour Party’s proposal to crack down on bribery in our planning system of the sort that was exposed by “RTÉ Investigates” on Monday night.
The Taoiseach told me on Tuesday that he was not convinced that a new stand-alone offence was required on this and we in the Labour Party disagree. It is vital that we crack down on planning corruption. Those who exploit the planning system for personal gain are not only making a quick buck off developers, they are also profiting at the expense of all those who want to move into a home of their own but who are locked out due to costs and delays. The actions of those who abuse the planning system increase the ultimate price for everyone. They increase the ultimate price of homes for us all. It is incumbent on the State to crack down on such practices but it seems that is not happening.
Last night, I was alerted to a concerning, recent and ongoing case. I was shown evidence of a party seeking to use the planning process to coerce a developer to pay more than €500,000 into an escrow account, in exchange for the withdrawal of an appeal to An Bord Pleanála. The party also insisted on the use of a confidentiality clause to cover it up. This feels like a return to the bad old days. In the correspondence I received, I saw evidence that this issue was brought to the attention of An Bord Pleanála months ago, but that no further action arose from it at the time.
As legislators, we have to act to address abuses within the planning system. We have to ensure that our planning system is not open to this sort of abuse because where it impacts in particular on residential developments, it is people who lose out and it is very serious. Is the Minister aware of cases of abuse like this within the planning system? What action does he propose to take to address them? Does the Minister now see the need to adopt our Labour Party amendment to the Planning and Development Bill to make this sort of behaviour a stand-alone offence? How else does the Minister propose to put an end to this sort of grubby deal and ensure our planning system is fit for purpose to deliver the homes and public infrastructure we badly need?
I thank Deputy Bacik for her question on this important issue. She will know we have commenced Second Stage of the Planning and Development Bill. As I have said, this is the most significant reform of our planning legislation that probably ever has taken place. It is a 700-page Bill that seeks to provide clarity, certainty and consistency in our planning legislation and system. That is crucially important.
I want to say to the Deputy that any amendments that are tabled will be looked at very seriously. We have not got to Committee Stage yet. I had hoped that we would have advanced further on Second Stage this week. Unfortunately, however, due to the Dáil business on Tuesday, which was tabled by the main Opposition party, it had to be paused. I agree completely with the Deputy that this matter is urgent but we have to consider this legislation very carefully. I certainly will work with constructive colleagues in the Opposition, such as the Deputy, as I have always done.
For the information of the House, I wrote to the Attorney General and the Department of Justice in advance of the “RTÉ Investigates” programme, which I find shocking. I have to say it is not surprising, because I have heard of cases. Regarding the specific case the Deputy mentioned, there was correspondence from the board to bring it to our attention. I would say to the person that under section 17 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act and sections 6 and 7 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, such practices can be looked at. However, if a party such as the Labour Party brings forward alternative suggestions and feels we can strengthen that in the Planning and Development Bill, I would be open to that. I say that to the Deputy in all sincerity.
We must ensure that we have a planning system that delivers the infrastructure we need, including homes, hospitals, roads and the various different things we need to improve the lives for our citizens. That is why the legislation needed to be upgraded and why we spent 18 months in preparation for this legislation. We also need to resource our planning system. That is why there are now 50% more people working in An Bord Pleanála than there were when I took over as Minister for Justice. Sorry, that is my next job. As Minister for housing-----
That is your next job.
Indeed. We are filling those roles now. There are now 15 board members and 314 posts have been approved in the board. We were as low as five members last year with all the controversies that came about in An Bord Pleanála. We had to stabilise it and get it moving. I will happily work with the Deputy and colleagues in the Opposition to strengthen this further if that is required. There are two existing Acts, which I have referred to, where prosecutions can be brought on for these types of cases.
Certainly, we will work with colleagues in the Government and across the House to ensure we have effective reforms of our planning system. Everyone wants to see a fit for purpose planning system. I spoke on the Bill the Government have introduced on Second Stage debate last week, but our concern is that while it is a mammoth Bill and the third largest in the history of the State, as the Minister has said, there seems to be very little by way of the radical reform that is necessary to overhaul procedures in An Bord Pleanála. We cannot lose this opportunity to ensure real progress is made on this Bill. I welcome the Minister’s commitment to work with me on the issue of the need for a stand-alone offence. I believe there are difficulties with using the existing criminal justice legislation to tackle this sort of corruption. I should say that some decades ago, the Labour Party exposed planning corruption and the cash-for-planning scandals in the planning system.
At the time, unfortunately, Fianna Fáil and many other parties left those calls unheeded. We want to ensure we do not miss this opportunity for radical reform and that whatever changes we bring in will address the real abuses of the planning system that are going on, that were exposed on Monday night and of which I have seen additional evidence.
This Bill is a major step forward and that is why it is important that we work together to get it passed as expeditiously as possible. There were some who accused us of rushing this Bill but we have not done so. We have engaged with stakeholders in the planning forum and right the way through. We had detailed pre-legislative scrutiny of this Bill but Committee Stage will be important. I am not saying the Bill cannot be added to; it can. I am just saying the advice I have received from the Attorney General is there are two existing laws where prosecutions can be brought where someone is seeking in this way and in the way we saw on Monday night. That type of behaviour is reprehensible and disgraceful and it slows the delivery of much-needed homes for people. It is effectively a form of bribery - there is no question about that - and that needs to be called out every time it is done. I ask the Deputy to submit the information she has to my office, as I know she will, and I will work with her on Committee Stage. Second Stage continues today and I hope we will be able to conclude Second Stage in advance of Christmas.
The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland's report this morning demonstrates complete market failure and failure of Government policy to deliver affordable housing for the majority of working people in this country. That is what its evidence suggests. The average cost of delivering a three-bedroom house across the country is €397,000 and in Dublin it is €451,000, requiring a combined household income of €127,000. That means 80% of households in this country cannot afford the cost of housing being delivered by the private market. Some 80% of workers have been priced out of the market. The Minister will undoubtedly say we have affordable housing schemes. The affordable housing ceiling for shared equity in Dublin is €360,000.
It is not.
It is €360,000.
It is not. I will come back in.
But €451,000 is what is being delivered. The Minister will probably mention cost rental. A recent example of cost rental properties near my area is as follows. A two-bedroom property was €1,445 per month and a three-bedroom property was €1,550 per month. In all of these cases, if you have two incomes in the household you might have a chance, although average earnings are €40,000 in this country so for the average house price, even two combined incomes will not be able to afford the cost the market is delivering in housing. However, in cost rental it will not deliver for single-income households because single-income households cannot afford €1,400 or €1,500 per month for a two or three-bedroom rental property. The housing assistance payment, HAP, thresholds are also too high. The homeless HAP threshold is €1,950 per month. Average rents in Dublin are €2,100 per month and if you are actually looking for something to rent it will be more like €2,500.
At every level people cannot afford it. They cannot afford to buy, they cannot afford cost rental in many cases and they cannot find a HAP tenancy that is within the thresholds. What do we need to do to be constructive? The Minister needs to recognise that the market is not capable of delivering for 70% to 80% of workers and therefore the State has to deliver 70% to 80% of what is being built as social and affordable housing. Can this be done? It is done in Vienna. We can do it if we decide to scale up the social and affordable housing targets, establish a State construction company, and in the short term, instead of the vulture funds buying properties, we must buy up what is being delivered in order to deliver social and affordable housing on scale.
I know the Deputy is earnest about this issue and that he raises it regularly. For the Deputy’s information, the price ceiling for the first home scheme in Dublin is €475,000 for a home and €500,000 for an apartment, and we review those ceilings every six months. On that scheme, we have had more than 7,000 registrations and more than 3,000 approvals, many of which were in the Deputy's county. There remain major challenges in affordability. I thank the SCSI for the work it has done and the report it has brought forward and that report speaks to the challenges we have. That is why we need to continue to advance Housing for All. What is important is that we increase supply across the board.
On social housing, I am a firm believer that the State needs to lead by example and we made a step change in delivery in that we will deliver more new social homes this year across the country, in all 31 local authority areas. There will be significant social housing delivery this year, more than we did last year. We will deliver substantially more affordable housing than we did last year. That will be significant and a good footprint. We will also deliver through the Land Development Agency, which the Deputy knows well from his area. Let us look at Shanganagh Castle which has good cost rental, affordable and social homes. We will be recapitalising and further capitalising the Land Development Agency to deliver more homes and that is what we are doing.
You cannot turn this around in two years. We have made it possible to have a footprint and pipeline of significant homes across this country, both at a social and an affordable level, in providing the supports for many of those renters and working families to be able to buy the homes through the first home scheme and the help-to-buy grant. Some 42,500 households have accessed the help-to-buy grant so far and there have been more than 7,000 registrations for the first home scheme. Across the board we need to deliver more homes and we are doing that. The figures for planning permissions were released just today. For the month of October they were 45% up on this time last year, with more than 9,000 homes approved.
I have brought in legislation, as the Deputy knows, which he supported, namely, the owner-occupier guarantee. That was the ban on the bulk purchases of homes by investor funds. We did that and that has taken shape. Thousands of planning permissions have been granted, with an owner-occupier guarantee, which means the home is for a family or an individual. We have changed the local authority affordable home loan. We have upped the income limits for singles in particular because it can be difficult for singles to purchase properties. That is why the first home scheme does not discriminate against them in any way, shape or form and it is why the Croí Cónaithe vacancy grant does not do so either. It is also why we have changed the local authority affordable home loan and upped the income limits there. We are making progress and there is more to do in that space. We have cost rental tenancies in place for the first time ever in Ireland. I will come back in on my supplementary contribution.
First, the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland is saying the ceilings are inadequate. The maximum you can go to under the local authority home loan is €360,000, well below the price the market is delivering. Therefore it is not available to huge numbers of people. The key point is that the Government's target for the year is for 29,000 houses. That includes only 9,000 social houses and 3,500 affordable houses, and by the way, the Government will not meet those targets.
We will
Not even close. Only 35% of what the Government is planning to deliver, but will not deliver, is social and affordable. However, 70% to 80% of working families are priced out of the market by the prices the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland is saying will be delivered. It is not working. The Government has to dramatically increase - even in the planning and development Bill - the proportion of social and affordable housing that is being delivered. Because nobody can afford what is being delivered, the vulture funds buy it all, rent it at unaffordable prices or lease it back to the local authorities at extortionate costs.
Through our local authorities alone I have approved funding for more than 4,500 local authority-led affordable homes, starting from on or about €160,000 or €166,000. That is working and I have met people who are moving into those homes. The first home scheme ceilings will be reviewed at the end of this year. I have given the Deputy the real ceiling; it is €475,000 in his area and we review those ceilings every six months.
It is no good if the local authority loan is less.
The Land Development Agency will deliver hundreds of homes this year. It was not delivering any homes when we took over after coming into government. Deputy Boyd Barrett opposed the legislation to establish the Land Development Agency when we voted on it, so we would not have a land development agency. It has committed €1.25 billion in equity.
We would still have social and affordable homes at Shanganagh.
I am sorry, but it is doing that.
We would have had them sooner.
We come in at every opportunity. We legislated for the LDA, we capitalised it and it is delivering homes. We want it to deliver more and we are going to further capitalise it to deliver more. The Deputy is earnest in his remarks but when the solutions to these issues are brought forward, like a State construction firm, the LDA, he votes against them.
While there is no doubt we need new homes, as the Minister is aware, I have long advocated the release of vacant homes to assist those in urgent need of housing. I have argued that we have streets in our towns and villages that have not had a football kicked on them for a generation. Many of these have vacant family homes close to schools and services with high-speed broadband outside the door. My proposal for the introduction of the vacant home refurbishment grant, which the Minister steered through the Government, is now beginning to yield tangible benefits. I thank him for taking up this initiative. Furthermore, I have highlighted the unjust triple taxation imposed on older people in long-term nursing home care who choose to rent out their homes. I am pleased to acknowledge the Government's actions this week to dismantle these barriers. This change has the potential to introduce an additional 3,115 rental properties on the market. There were initial concerns that this policy might inadvertently pressure older people into long-term nursing home care. However, in a response to me last March, the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, assured Dáil Éireann there were no concerns regarding the thoroughness of the existing independent medical assessments for care needs conducted by the HSE prior to nursing home admission. This crucial point has been overlooked in much of the public debate on this matter.
I also commend the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, on her prompt action in extending the rent-a-room relief to social welfare recipients interested in renting out a spare room in their homes. It was a suggestion I made in light of the potential benefits. This initiative is not only about providing essential housing but also offers companionship and enhances security and provides peace of mind, which can be invaluable to older people. Thanks to this scheme, older people may now earn €269.23 weekly or €14,000 annually by renting out a room without affecting their non-State contributory pension or the benefits of a spouse or adult dependant of a contributory pensioner. However, to fully capitalise on this opportunity and create additional accommodation, we must address the existing medical card barrier currently hindering many older people from participating in this scheme. At present, pensioners aged under 70 or any social welfare recipient who receive an additional income face the prospect of losing their medical card. This has now become a barrier to releasing vacant rooms to meet our current housing needs and this is a point I highlighted last March. The medical card income limits have not increased since 2005. This is denying people on low incomes access to affordable healthcare, barring them from employment opportunities and blocking the release of vacant rooms. Will the Minister intervene?
I thank Deputy Naughten for raising these issues related vacancy and the other measures we brought forward to enable us to release further housing stock and accommodation capacity. I especially thank the Deputy for his engagement on that because he was very helpful and constructive as regards the establishment of the vacancy grant, which we have done. I am pleased to say that over 5,300 applications have been received and there have been nearly 2,500 approvals, so the scheme is working very well. I have received approval to extend that further into next year and to double the targets we have set.
Work has also been done on the rent-a-room scheme and the income disregard, with a particular focus on students. This will be very worthwhile and will have benefits for both students and householders, as the Deputy correctly said. The over-70s income limit for medical cards was changed in 2021, as the Deputy knows. Further to our engagement in March, when we agreed a countermotion providing that the Government would extend the rent-a-room scheme disregard for social welfare recipients and extend the disregard into medical card criteria, we got Government approval for those measures. The objective of the Government is to provide for a disregard of up to €14,000 income for persons granted a rent-a-room relief by the Revenue Commissioners and that such income will not be assessed for medical card assessment purposes. At present, income derived from the rent-a-room scheme would be assessed under the medical card assessment, but in such cases this income would obviously be a contributing factor.
Officials from the Department of Health subsequently progressed work to identify and develop the legislative requirements needed to give effect to this objective. We agreed that this needs to be done and the income disregard for rent-a-room relief for people on medical cards needs to come into effect. The Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023 has been drafted. It provides for the exemption of rent-a-room income from medical card assessment. The general scheme of the Bill was approved by the Government and published on 6 October, following which work was undertaken by officials in the Department of Health and the Attorney General's office. Drafting of the Bill is at its final stages and I am informed by the Department of Health it is expected to be completed very shortly. Subject to Government approval for the publication of the Bill, which I am sure we will get, it is intended to progress the legislation through the Houses of the Oireachtas in early 2024.
I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. These measures will help people who would lose their medical card by renting a room through the scheme. That is a big consideration and people will not do it, frankly. We have agreed the matter in principle. We now need to get the legislation completed and into the House.
I thank the Minister for his reply. To put a face on this discussion, in November last year, I raised the case of Una with the then Tánaiste. Una was a pensioner aged 66 at that time and despite working all her life, she was in receipt of a non-contributory State pension. She was refused the medical card because she receives a net income of €1 per week on top of her pension for renting out a field. Her next-door neighbour gets an extra €11 per week in the State contributory pension and qualifies for the medical card. This anomaly arises because these medical card thresholds have not been revised since 2005. The basic rate of social welfare income has gone up by €83.23 and Una and everyone like her are being denied access to a medical card for the sake of €1. This needs to be urgently addressed.
I assure the Deputy it will be addressed and we will work with him on that. The Department of Health is working on the matter and we are concluding the drafting of the legislation. For the information of the House, as of 1 October last, there were over 1.6 million medical card holders and over 595,000 GP visit card holders. This means more than 42% of the population has access to free GP care, and rightly so. Eligibility for the cards was extended to all children aged under eight years from 11 August 2023, so considerable progress has been made on the expansion of the medical card programme and the GP visit card. I commend the Minister for Health on the work he has done on that.
On the specific issue the Deputy raised, the Government has agreed the principle and the objective. We are concluding the work on the drafting of the finalised legislation. That will come to Government for approval to publish it. We want to move this Bill through the Houses early in the new year because there are many people who would offer a room and accommodation via the rent-a-room scheme and we want to ensure they do not lose their medical cards. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter.