The Bill has to be published and enacted before any of its measures can take place. Deputy Boyd Barrett knows that. Therefore, the Bill will defer certain notices of termination served on tenants for the period from the day after the date of the passing of the Act. Irrespective of whether a notice to quit is in process, once the legislation comes into play, no one can be evicted the day after that unless he or she has not paid rent and has not fulfilled obligations in respect of good behaviour and stuff like that, …

-----with tenants in situ . The vast majority of tenants were in situ . This was done with a view to ensuring they are not evicted. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has conveyed this policy to the local authorities that they may do this. In every given situation local authorities must have some discretion. The dramatic change since July has seen a significant increase in the activity levels and purchasing of houses where tenants in situ were on the cusp of being evicted. This has happened as a result of the Mi…

It was not ignored. The Minister has implemented it.

We are building substantially more social homes through approved social housing bodies and local authorities. We are doing everything we can to increase the number of social homes, primarily through house building, with some through acquisitions and some through leasing in respect of immediate urgency around homelessness, which we want to prevent. The State is the biggest actor in housing now. Go through all the schemes and it will be seen that the Government is bridging the viability gap. This is why Croí Cónaithe…

Have we time to go through the questions from Deputy Paul Murphy and others, with the agreement of the House? There are two or three others.

On data centres and TBESS, we must have a general scheme that catches as many people as we possibly can because we do not want to lose jobs.

On another day, we can debate whether we think we should get rid of all data centres or if there is a function or a role for data centres in a digitalised economy. I would like and appreciate hearing the Deputy's perspective on that. Nevertheless, TBESS is an emergency scheme being brought in as a temporary state aid framework under the auspices of the EU to ensure companies do not go to the wall and we can protect jobs. That is the motivation behind it. Deputy Quinlivan raised the matter of the income thresholds r…

I have.

I said that where there is systemic non-payment of rent, people can still be evicted. In situations where people are in difficulty or trouble, a whole range of measures is in place to intervene to prevent people from being evicted, in terms of additional needs-----

I do not know the detail of the individual case the Deputy has brought to my attention.

There are other mechanisms that can be used as well.

To respond to Deputy Brendan Smith, the economy is dependent on SMEs. The Deputy is correct in saying that many companies depend on the Northern Ireland or British market in terms of initial exports of goods leaving Ireland and going into the UK market. This is why it is important to us that the UK economy is strong. If the UK's economy is strong, Ireland's economy is strong. Energy costs are significant and that is why we have brought in the TBESS. We have also brought in a range of other guaranteed loan schemes t…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 to 17, inclusive, together. The social dialogue unit co-ordinates and supports the Government’s overall approach to social dialogue through a variety of mechanisms, including the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, which engages with representatives of employers and trade unions on economic and employment issues insofar as they affect the labour market and which are of mutual concern. The most recent plenary meeting, which I chaired, took place on 7 September. This was an oppor…

Deputy Quinlivan asked about the minimum wage. We have an independent Low Pay Commission that deals with the minimum wage. That was agreed in the House.

The Deputy talked about the minimum wage as well.

The Deputy talked about the minimum wage as well.

I want to make the point that the minimum wage is determined by an independent commission, which also then-----

I know but the value of the independent-----

The reason we set up an independent commission was to avoid, every single year, having partisan perspectives on it. We wanted it professionally done and well researched with a balance of considerations taken into account. That commission also assisted the Tánaiste and did some work on a living wage. The Tánaiste has published the details of that and has given a timeline for us to achieve a living wage by 2025. It is a good initiative and it represents substantial and significant progress on where we were. It is rea…

More than two years ago, there were up to 1,000 people who were in direct provision and could have left but decided to stay.