Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I will do so. I want to mention before I go that when a particular Minister, Noël Browne, was given the full credit for conquering the scourge of tuberculosis, it should really have been given to the public sector in this country. The Government of the time - really, it was the public service - came up with really dramatic proposals and specific and focused actions. It is one of the moments in the history of the State that is remembered. For once, the Irish State, conservative and all as it was, addressed a social ill. It became an iconic development. I suggest to the Minister of State that we are facing a similar crisis here. It involves 90,000 families. There is terrible suffering out there. People are being told by landlords that their rents are increasing by 20% or 30%. If they do not pay, they have to go. They are being housed in hotels. They are shipped from here to there when a particular weekend means that hotels can increase their prices massively for others. It is outrageous. Rather than grudgingly recognising the potential of the Bill before the committee in this regard, as it is doing, the Government should embrace it along the lines I am suggesting. To do so would also be seen as iconic.