Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is approximately 280 per local authority, far below the level of the waiting lists. Mr. McCarthy spoke of a strategy. The rent supplement scheme, which comes under the Department, was designed as a short-term scheme. In many cases, it has ended up becoming a long-term scheme. The RAS, from my perspective, works. It is a relatively well-administered scheme.

I have major misgivings over the way the rent supplement scheme in certain cases has operated, in terms of the level of controls. Nearly all of those on the rent supplement scheme are excellent. There are weaknesses in the scheme. I suppose I am asking Mr. McCarthy to bring it to me on a practical level. How will society, in which the Department is central, deal with a local authority housing crisis in the broadest sense when the number of units being made available on an annual basis is falling far short of the requirement and young housing applicants, many of whom are lone parents, end up living in sub-standard accommodation and find in a relatively short period of time that they have got into a physical housing poverty trap, both in the financial sense and in the level of facility provided?

Mr. McCarthy, dare I say it, is a new broom. I am setting him a challenge, not criticising the old broom but acknowledging the new broom. This is one of the most challenging areas for a public representative. I have thought long and hard about it. We are dealing with such persons every day of the week. It is something in which I have a particular personal interest. I see young people, particularly single mothers, living in dives. I would not put anyone into them. I feel an onus to help them. Mr. McCarthy might tell me what he has in mind to address the challenge, involving organisations such as NAMA and the voluntary groups that do fantastic work. How do we go about it systematically where, instead of finding mechanisms to keep people off the lists, we find mechanisms to facilitate in various different forms people to get adequate necessary housing and to not create a housing poverty trap?