Ms Ann-Marie O'Reilly:

One thing for which we have been asking for some time is a vision or a policy for the private rental sector and the role it is going to play in housing delivery into the future. At present, there is no specific role set out. For many years, it was a transitory sector. It was referred to as the forgotten sector. In 2011, there was meant to be a move towards making it a more stable long-term tenure. HAP was brought in in 2014 to supply social housing but that all seemed to fall by the wayside and there is no clear path now for it. There needs to be an agreement at Government level as to what role it will play in the long term, and that will guide and shape the policy and the legislation going forward. We would certainly agree that we need that stability in policy and legislation. While the current Minister has said the changes he has proposed are going to be for the long term, there is no sunset clause. We can understand why some people might think the next Government could change these. No more than with Sláintecare, despite its challenges, there was whole-of-government and cross-party support and agreement that this was the way forward. Certainly, that is needed in terms of the private rental sector and the role it will play into the future.