Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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We are giving every consideration to Deputy O'Dea's Bill and have been interacting with him regarding approved housing bodies and rental. We are looking at every aspect of this issue. We need creative thinking to see how this can happen.

I do not accept that 150,000 homes could be locked out of the housing market. There are 21,000 people in the scheme. When someone ticks the box indicating whether he or she is single or married, those are the only two boxes that available. If someone was widowed and had an adult dependant living at home, this is not taken into account. From the data we have, my understanding is that we could be talking about 4,000 houses. Not everybody will want to rent out his or her home but there could still be a significant number of houses that could be used to accommodate people. We are hugely conscious of the housing issue and will continue to work on this. I would be interested in hearing what Deputy Shortall has to say regarding her amendment. We are very anxious to have a report on this within six months.