Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)

We have seen the figures from the Residential Tenancies Board on the increase in the number of notices to quit issued. It relates directly to the Estimates. The allocation is completely inadequate in terms of the tenant in situ scheme, which enables councils to purchase homes where tenants are in place and keep in people in their homes, and the cost rental tenant in situ scheme. Will the Minister comment on this issue? We are clearly in the midst of an unprecedented tsunami of evictions with those numbers. Almost 15,000 notices to quit were issued in the first nine months of this year. What does the Minister say to those families and individuals who are receiving notices to quit, and have few options of where to go, at a time of rents of €2,000 or €3,000? In my constituency, I was dealing with a family this week who have been given a notice to quit by their landlord. It is a family with adult children. They have nowhere to go. Where are they to go to? I am asking the Minister that genuinely. Where are these thousands of people going to go right now except into hidden homelessness or homelessness?