Sorry for cutting across the Minister, but when will it be backdated to?

So anybody can apply.

It will not be open until the middle of this year.

What about houses in multi-unit schemes?

It has been 16 years since the technical guidance documents underpinning Part B of our Building Control Regulations dealing with fire safety were drafted. I understand there is currently public consultation on this matter. In fact, our committee is hoping to hold a session on it after the consultation period closes. Will the Minister of State update us on the work of his Department and give a commitment that not only will the consultation conclude this year but that new technical guidance documents will be complete…

I thank the Minister of State. As he knows, these regulations are crucial to ensure fire safety and human safety in buildings, particularly in multi-unit buildings. The guidelines are 16 years old and the nature of building has changed comprehensively since then with buildings such as the children's hospital, apartments and nursing homes, etc. I am deeply concerned that of the 80 appeals on fire safety certificates that have gone to An Bord Pleanála in the past five years requiring, for example, sprinkler systems i…

Let us have the figures.

The Taoiseach could answer the question.

We cannot handle rising homelessness.

More votes.

In four weeks' time the emergency ban on evictions will end. From April, hundreds of people will face the prospect of losing their homes. Single people, couples, parents with children and pensioners will become homeless. In many local authorities emergency accommodation is already full to capacity. The system is at breaking point. In Dublin alone, 60 single people and 100 families from the county are in emergency accommodation in Meath and Kildare. We are facing not only an increase in people in emergency accommoda…

There is no pro to being in emergency accommodation, sleeping in a tent or having to bring your children to a Garda station. The Taoiseach said the ban on evictions was not working. In fact, it was his Government that was not working. The reason the previous ban on evictions was so effective was because exits from homelessness rose. In the past year and half, under the watch of the Taoiseach and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, exits from homelessness have collapsed. …

What additional emergency measures will the Government put in place for April to counteract the negative consequences of its own decision?

We do.

Last night, "RTÉ Investigates" put a spotlight on the difficult and traumatic circumstances families of children with additional needs are experiencing due to the failures of the public health service. There are nearly 12,000 children on waiting lists for psychology appointments in a public primary care centre. Many of these children are waiting over five years, and in some cases more than seven years, for an appointment with a qualified psychologist. "RTÉ Investigates" showed us just how easy it is for an unscrupu…

I thank People Before Profit-Solidarity for introducing this Bill, which we are supporting, and for providing us with the opportunity for this debate. The Government has been in office for over two and a half years and the facts of the Minister's record in housing do not lie. During that period the private rental sector has continued to shrink at a more accelerated pace than under his predecessor, former Deputy Eoghan Murphy. The social and affordable housing targets, which are too low in the first place, have been…

Twice he asked you.

Hear, hear.

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — the Government has lost control of the homelessness crisis as levels of homelessness continue to rise despite the winter ban on evictions; — the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O'Brien TD, and his Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael colleagues in Government, including the Minister for Finance, Michael McGrath TD, and the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD, chose to allow more people to become …

That is not true.