William Aird (Laois, Fine Gael)

I have a question about the housing situation. I was a member of a local authority for many years. It introduced a scheme whereby if a person was renting a house and it was put up for sale, the council would buy it and leave him or her in the house. I thought it was an excellent scheme. I agree with the witnesses; it is a pity that it has not been continued. The fact was that they felt that it was going to be abused from the point of view that people went in, but that is neither here nor there. They could set a time of four, five, six years or whatever and state that a person was there at the time. I say this especially from the point of view of catering for children who are homeless. The witnesses referred to the very bottom rung of the ladder in the context of homelessness, particularly when it comes to children. Can they provide an example of the types of accommodation those children are going into? What is available for them at the very lowest level? I forget the exact number, but I think Ms Grogan said it is a couple of per cent.