Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Just on the homeless numbers, which are the number of people in emergency accommodation, they are up again. I agree with Deputy Casey that they are disappointing. I am also loath to use that word because it is much more than "disappointing". It is devastating that they continue to rise. The number of families and children has gone down slightly and the number of singles has gone up, but overall it is an increase.

If I had been asked this time last year, I would have hoped that, by this time this year, we would see the number start to fall. It has levelled off at around 10,000 per year but should be falling by now and falling much faster. It is not. A major part of the approach is providing more social housing, which we are doing as quickly as we can. We will do more this year and next.

The other issue is that of tenants' rights. With the co-operation of the Opposition parties, we enhanced tenants' rights in the past couple of weeks. This means that if somebody is given notice to quit by his or her landlord, he or she has much more time to find alternative accommodation. Both of those steps are going to make a difference in terms of exits from homelessness and preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place. I would be more than disappointed and more than devastated if, by this time next year, the numbers did not fall substantially.

There are factors under our control, such as the provision of social housing and enhancing tenants' rights, and there are factors that are not under our control. Nearly half of the cases of homelessness are caused by family breakdown. It is impossible to predict how many families will break down in the next year. Roughly 20% of people who are homeless are not from the EEA and are not entitled to housing. They might not even be entitled to live here at all. Again, it is impossible to predict those numbers for the year ahead. What we can predict is the number of additional homes we will add to the social housing stock. That will be at least 10,000 this year, which represents quite a major increase over the figure of a few years ago.

On the compensation package, we actually do not have the terms and conditions yet from the Commission. I have not seen them. Perhaps the Minister, Deputy Creed, has seen them. I cannot answer the question just yet. We will need to find Exchequer money to match the funding. That is the way it works. I do not know where it is going to come from yet but we will find it. It will provide some income support for farmers. We will try to ensure they are able to apply for those payments and get them as soon as possible. I saw the figures from Teagasc today on how farm incomes fell substantially last year, because of the bad weather and other factors. The farmers need the funding. We are going to try to get it to them as quickly as possible.

I am conscious of the possibility that Mercosur may be back on the agenda. Members will be aware that also. I do not have an update on that yet but it is very much part of our watching brief.