Labour has said they fear releasing data on the nationalities of people allocated social housing could lead to “disgusting” abuse on social media. 

At Kerry County Council's most recent meeting, Councillors said that they persistently encountered people who had read on social media that most social housing is being allocated to non-Irish people . 

That is incorrect but Councillors said they lacked the data to argue otherwise; they have asked the council to collect data on the nationalities of those allocated social housing. 

On The Claire Byrne Show, Labour TD Conor Sheehan said false information about social housing is something that he ‘deals with it myself the whole time as a constituency TD’. 

“Anybody who gets a social housing allocation has been deemed that they are entitled and eligible to receive that allocation by the local authority, that they fit out the criteria,” he said. 

“So, I don't really see why the local authority should be then forced to release their country of origin, whether it be Ireland, whether it be another EU country or beyond. 

“I can't see what purpose that serves.”

The Limerick TD continued that there is a “huge issue with social media” and said he was concerned how information on the nationalities of social housing residents might be used. 

“For example, a Minister might launch a social housing development and the comments under it are absolutely disgusting,” he said. 

“This is something that we have been dealing with very recently as a party, because we had our candidate, Councillor Helen Ogbu, in the Galway West by-election. 

“The amount of misinformation and disgusting racism as well that was posted under Helen Ogbu's social media content - it was all reported to Meta and none of it was actually ever taken down.” 

'Basic economics' 

Also on the programme, Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said he disagrees and urged local authorities to be “transparent and open”. 

“I think misinformation excels in the petri dish of a vacuum of information and hiding information from people only makes them suspicious, only pushes them towards the ne'er-do-wells who do want to push a racist agenda in this country,” he argued. 

“It's impossible for policy makers to make proper policy if information has been withheld from them. 

“We do have a housing crisis in this country and it's important for us to be able to analyse all the elements of that particular crisis.”

The Meath West continued that while the main reason for the housing crisis is the low level of house building, immigration is also a factor. 

“It's a basic economics,” he said. 

“It's basic physics that if you bring 70,000 people into a country every year and you don't build the infrastructure for them, then you're going to increase rents, increase prices and make it more difficult to get access to those homes.” 

Deputy Tóibín added that the Government should consider changing the rules to make it hard for recently arrived citizens to claim social housing. 

“These individuals have achieved all they need to achieve to get on the housing waiting list, but there are questions for policy makers in terms of habitual residency,” he said. 

“Habitual residency in this country is 52 weeks - so, a person moving to this country after 52 weeks is entitled to social housing. 

“That's very low in international standards; for example, Austria would have five years of habitual residency.”

Main image: Houses under construction. Picture by: Alamy.com.