Housing and Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-14
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Lynn Ruane (IND), University of Dublin

It is obviously not the Minister's decision in relation to whether the Bills Office rules an amendment out of order but I would like to establish a few things as they apply to the section as a whole.
What is currently ruled out of order is the deletion of a section. The section read:
A housing authority may refuse to make arrangements under subsection (3) where alternative arrangements, assistance or accommodation have been refused by the person within a period of 24 months prior to seeking accommodation under section 10(1).
Can the Minister communicate to me whether, if someone refuses emergency accommodation, they have access to emergency accommodation elsewhere under the current system? I wonder if someone who is in emergency accommodation who refuses social housing, emergency accommodation or support within 24 months currently has access to other emergency accommodation sites? The answer to that is really important and it is really problematic then as to why the Bills Office would rule it out of order. The cost is already assumed by the State because under the existing framework, people already refuse emergency accommodation in certain sites and can seek emergency accommodation in other sites. It is not a new cost.
There is a man I currently work with who refused an emergency accommodation site due to access to transport because he had lost a limb. He needed to be close to public transport and he worked as a translator. He had got some part-time work translating and he wanted to be able to get there because he is on crutches and has one leg. He refused certain emergency accommodation and he was able to access emergency accommodation somewhere else that was more beneficial to him and enabled him to have that stability in his life.
Now we have a decision by the Bills Office that says our amendment creates a cost to the State but it does not. It only supports maintaining the status quo and the current cost to the State of providing supports. It does not increase the supports or create any new supports. Can the Minister explain what is under the current framework? I assume the reason we have to write this is because it does not exist but currently, you can seek emergency accommodation regardless of whether you have refused support for the past 24 months. It is an important answer not so much because the Minister decided to rule it out but because it is very important for the Bills Office.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:15+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-14