Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There will be an ongoing review process over the next six months because it is the pilot phase. Once this legislation is passed, which I hope it will be before the summer recess, it will give us the legislative base on which to develop pilot schemes in the other seven local authorities. An ongoing review is built in during the course of the pilot phase which is a learning process. On Committee Stage, I gave a commitment to report to the committee at the end of the pilot phase. I will also be reporting back to Government, and generally, on the outcome of the pilot phase. I will be examining it to see if elements need to be changed, including legislative change if necessary. I can give Deputy Murphy an undertaking that at that point, if we need to put an ongoing review process into the relevant legislation, I will do so. The next six months will be a learning process. I have given a commitment both to the committee and the Government that we will come back to examine it fully and to ensure it is doing what is intended.

I will not rise to any provocation regarding my own party, but I will respond to housing issues in my role as the responsible Minister. We are not moving towards reliance on private landlords. We are actually reforming the system for people who are already, at least temporarily, reliant on private landlords because of the shortage of supply. I fully acknowledge that there is a shortage of supply. This is not moving a pile of people into a private landlord situation. It is addressing the existing situation, which is that people are living in houses owned by private landlords. They are in receipt of rent supplement with all the negativity attached in that if they are lucky enough to get a job, they will lose their rent support.

When we debated this on Second Stage, there was a positive welcome for that element. I hope some people will see some merit in this legislation. I think there is quite a lot of merit in all three elements of the Bill. It is not about moving towards privatising any system; it is about dealing with the current reality, largely because there is an under-supply.

I have already acknowledged that there needs to be more regulation of the private rented sector to give more security for tenants.

We want to improve the situation for people who are currently in private rented accommodation by bringing it under the local authorities and giving them better rights, particularly with regard to the amount of money they have to pay, and relating it to their income. That is the purpose.

I made homelessness a priority when I became Minister of State. One of my first statements was that homelessness would be a priority for me. I established the oversight group shortly afterwards. It reported and we are acting on its recommendations. This was not because the media highlighted the issue. There was practically no media coverage of the establishment of the oversight group and the earlier stages of its works. It was only in recent months that the media began to highlight this area. I am not acting because of the media coverage; I am acting because it is the right thing to do. We should not tolerate homelessness in a civilised society and a republic. That is something I am determined to address. I am straying off the issue but others strayed and I wanted to respond to their points.

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