Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. I have been taken a little bit by surprise. I joined the meeting at 2 p.m. as that is the time at which I thought it was due to start, rather than at 1.30 p.m. My apologies if I have missed anything.

I am not in favour of waiving pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill because I think it is a wider issue than simply extending it from April until July. There are potential policy implications in the context of the eviction ban being lifted in conjunction with the lifting of the 5 km restriction. We have the opportunity to try to address the issues that have arisen in family homelessness. The majority of people entering family homelessness have come from the private rented sector. As the committee discussed yesterday, when the 5 km restriction is limited, those people will again be left to the ravages of the market. The proposal that has been put before the committee involves a simple extension for people who have registered and been in arrears. As we discussed yesterday, I do not think the numbers who have registered reflect the numbers who are either in arrears or potentially at risk of homelessness. I think there are much wider policy implications involved, rather than the Government line that this is simply about extending the protections from August until July. We can pretend that we are doing something while not actually doing it. I think we need to look at the wider issue of evictions, the implications of the pandemic in that regard and how we address the issue of families entering homelessness. This is the opportunity to do so. I do not support what the Government is doing. It had three months to come to us-----