Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Okay. All of us have examples but I came across a case only yesterday. It involves a recently separated young woman with two children who cares for her mother also. She was offered short-term rental accommodation under RAS in a location that did not suit not just because of the situation with her mother but the difficulty for her children and not wanting to move them at such a distressing time for them and the family. However, in refusing that accommodation she has reduced points in terms of a permanent solution. That cannot go on. It cannot be such that there would be a sleight of hand on the part of those in authority to give the impression that they are solving a housing crisis when, with all due respects, they are doing no such thing. Fifty thousand people are accommodated through this scheme. Is the Minister telling me we do not have a problem with those 50,000 because they are in short-term rental accommodation? That is not the case, and we have to call a spade a spade. Those people should still be considered for long-term, permanent solutions, and they should not be cast aside because of that. I do not abdicate responsibility for my party being a party to the RAS, which similarly has deficiencies in that regard, but this issue is resulting in a huge crisis. If we are serious and fair to people, that is fine. If, in the short to medium term, the only solution that can be offered in a certain circumstance is that of short-term rental accommodation, we should not penalise people in terms of the opportunity they might have for a permanent solution because they take that. To think that a system is penalising people in that scenario is wrong, unfair and absurd. We have to stand up against that. There should be no sleight of hand, massaging of the figures or misrepresentation of the current situation. It is too serious an issue with which to play games. I ask the Minister to seriously consider that, if not today, going back to the drawing board and coming back to us before the next Stage of the Bill. We should not play games with people's livelihood and ability to provide a home for their families. I ask the Minister to please adhere to the suggestion in this amendment.