It seems to me that the Minister has left out a few crucial details. The first, of course, is that a memo was due to go to Cabinet on this matter last autumn. The Minister thought he was able to proceed to refer the report to the Oireachtas committee for its consideration. That was blocked by his Government partners and now the thing sits in abeyance. I obviously have not seen the report, although I am keen to. I am a strong advocate of enshrining a strong right to housing in the Constitution, as is my party. It is…

It is interesting the Minister did not refute or contradict my suggestion that there was an intention to bring a memo to Cabinet last autumn but there was a-----

-----disagreement between Government parties. If I am incorrect, I would like the Minister to put that clearly on the record. The problem is that this is another of those occasions where he makes it seem like he is doing something but where it appears that nothing is actually going to happen. I suspect what will happen is that eventually a memo will go to Cabinet, with both the commission's reports, including the one he has had since last June on the right to housing and the one on the wider issues, which I underst…

God loves a trier.

A roaring success. Absolutely.

Deputy Dillon is the fourth Minister of State since 2018 to stand up in the House and read out almost exactly the same script. It is an open secret, and this will be of value to Deputy Flaherty, that the guidelines have been ready and complete for at least two if not three Ministers of State, but for reasons of political controversy they are not being published. We will not see the guidelines, I wager, this side of the local elections and I am not convinced we will see them this side of a general election either. L…

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

As the Minister knows, there have been significant problems with the implementation of the cost rental tenant in situ scheme. There have been very small numbers of applications and even lower numbers of purchases. Of course, there is an ongoing delay with the processing and progress of the residential tenancies (right to purchase) Bill. Can the Minister give us an update on whether he intends to review and amend the cost rental tenant in situ scheme to fix the very obvious problems? Can he give us an update on what…

The number of applications has been tiny and the number of purchases has been in the tens. Not a single one of the tenants affected has been transferred onto an affordable rent. The application process is too cumbersome and people do not know about the scheme. It is another of the Minister's failures. He is now telling us that none of that can change until there is change to the legislation. This scheme opened a year ago and the Minister had not even spoken to the approved housing bodies at the time it opened. It w…

That is not true, as the Minister knows.

The Minister is evading questions as usual. Off you go.

And the €20 million.

So the answer is "No".

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to make it an offence for a landlord to seek sex in lieu of rent or to advertise to seek sex in lieu of rent and for that purpose to amend the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 and to provide for related matters. It was in December 2021 that Ann Murphy, a young reporter with the Irish Examiner , broke the scandal that has become known as "sex for rent". More properly, it is described as predatory landlords preying on vulnerable and often young women des…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

As the Minister will be aware, the December homeless figures showed a record 13,318 people, including 3,962 children, in emergency accommodation funded by his Department. That is a 20% increase in family homelessness on the previous year but there was a month-on-month increase in single-person homelessness and pensioner homelessness. While I welcome the fact there was a slight decrease in family homelessness month on month, as the Minister will be aware, homeless charities have said that is more than like the seaso…

When the December figures were published, Simon Communities stated that homelessness is poised to increase in the coming months. They would know because they are on the front line. The problem is there is a growing gap between the answers that the Minister gives to these questions on the floor of the Dáil and the reality for many thousands of adults and children who are experiencing homelessness. Since Deputy O'Brien has been Minister, homelessness has gone up a shocking 61%. Child homelessness has increased by 74%…

Not true.

That is not true.