Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I must come back to section 37(2)(a), which provides that a household shall source the dwelling in respect of which it seeks housing assistance. This is a major problem for families unless there is some help from the public authorities, which the Minister of State says must work within existing resources. The reality is that we have had homeless people lugging children around trying to find places. They need help to do this. If there is no role for local authorities in approaching landlords or providing a mechanism to approach them, a huge burden is placed on people.

As Deputy Catherine Murphy said, people are certainly topping up on rent supplements across the board. It is quite common. When we introduce HAP, how many people will fall by the wayside? I worry that we will have an issue in terms of what funding will be provided by the local authorities. Some tenants will certainly try to talk to landlords to top up, which is something we want to avoid. Unless there are rent controls, which the Minister of State has said she is looking at, whether they are tied to the cost of living or some other mechanism, we will continue to come back to this.