Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I answered the Deputy earlier when I spoke about engagement with Deputy Coppinger on this issue. I spoke to him earlier about engaging with the Department of Justice and Equality on how we can compile statistics. I also pointed out that this issue would not solely fall to me and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government because it is a criminal matter outside of my brief. To conclude, the Anti-Evictions Bill 2018 the Deputy has introduced would not solve this particular issue and it would not solve the housing crisis either. We have been quite clear on that before. We have had two engagements on this matter in this committee today and I spoke about it in the Chamber earlier on. The Deputy should not seek to mischaracterise how I have responded to this very serious matter. Also, he should not ignore the very valid concerns I have raised about how Deputy Barry is trying to link this to something else when for all intents and purposes he does not know if there is any linkage at all, as he has admitted already.