Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I heard on the grapevine that the Limerick phase is not going terribly well, but we shall see. I take the point the Minister of State makes about creating pressure in respect of the long-term solution, which is council housing.

The more I think about this, the more I want to object. The Minister of State says this does not fix us to the rent caps. If there is flexibility and local authorities exercise it, they will just exhaust their budgets at a certain point and have to turn people away. This is happening. I was talking to Wicklow County Council yesterday about a particular woman who has a severely autistic child. She was in a hotel which kicked her and the child out - probably because it is coming to the summer holidays. She is now out on the street. She went to the local authority on Friday and whoever she was dealing with just said, "Sorry, we have nothing for you." I rang the senior housing official and said "You have an obligation to this woman. She has a severely autistic child." She said "Sorry; the budget has run out. I agree with you and am sympathetic, but the budget is gone." She said there was nothing to give this woman. I do not know where the woman is today and will have to talk to her later. She is out on the street with a child who has severe special needs. That is the problem. Therefore, the legislation should provide that housing needs must be met, not that a local authority must work within certain financial parameters. It is the wrong way around.