Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have just two points to make. The one fact that has not been mentioned is the number of rental properties being lost to the market every year. According to the RTB, since January 2017 to September this year we have lost 20,000 rental units. That is the single biggest loss of rental units in three decades, which obviously means there is additional pressure on the system. According to Dublin City Council, we have only had 900 short-term lets come into long-term letting, so we have not seen a significant move there. The Government has a target of another 15,000 HAP tenancies next year.

I have never heard anyone say that HAP or rental subsidies should be abolished. One could not do that to the 100,000 families depending on them. The concern is that Government policy views them as long-term social housing support and the total number is increasing every year. That means the bill will forever increase, rather than seeing rental subsidies as, for the most part, temporary, while people are waiting for secure accommodation. That is a concern because if the kinds of changes many of us from all sides and the witnesses are discussing are not made, next year will be much more difficult than this year for all the reasons that we know.

I do not have a question, but I support Deputy Gould's request that the committee should write to the Minister and call for a short time-bound review. Perhaps the Housing Agency would be best placed to do it. All of the issues that have been raised here could be considered. I do not think anybody is saying the system is perfect and that it could not benefit from change. I second Deputy Gould's proposal. It would be at least one practical outcome from today for us to request the Minister to ask the Housing Agency to do a report and perhaps to send a transcript of the exchange of the committee to inform the work of the Housing Agency in that regard.