Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. Is he saying that by the end of the Government's term, only from 8,000 to 10,000 of the 73,000 households will have been transferred to HAP?

What exactly does that mean in regard to the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014? The Minister of State will remember we had a lengthy and very passionate debate in this House with the Minister, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, about whether section 37 would mean that when these private tenants were transferred to the HAP, they would then be regarded as being housed. Has that matter been totally clarified? The Minister later said that, in her view, people would retain their places on the list and so on. It is a very important element of what is happening in regard to rent supplement.

This morning we received a briefing from the Simon Community which recommended an urgent review of rent supplement limits and increasing the limits to deal with rapidly escalating rents. Effectively, as the Minister of State will know from his constituency, rents are jumping by €200, €300 or more a month, with families desperately trying to keep up. What is the status of the so-called Dublin protocol, whereby rent supplement limits are allowed to be exceeded by the Tánaiste's Department in certain cases? Is it being expanded? Is it something in which the Minister of State has a particular interest?

See this speech in context