Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We all agree that housing is one of the most pressing issues in this country. The Government is committed to prioritising and resolving this issue. The Deputy, however, seems to be conveniently pointing to the worst-case scenarios. The Private Residential Tenancies Board, PRTB, is doing a great of good work in terms of raising awareness of tenants' rights. In fact, a campaign is under way, in conjunction with the Department of Social Protection, at the moment. I advise the Deputy and any citizen who has concerns in this area to visit the website keepingyourhome.ie, operated by the Money Advice & Budgeting Service and the Citizens' Information Board, which sets out the legislation that is in place to protect people from eviction in cases in which rents have been hiked. That is not allowed to happen under existing law, and there is support and advice available for people in that scenario.

The Deputy is not giving local authorities the credit due to them for bringing thousands of people into successful rental accommodation schemes around the country. A report on the implementation of the HAP scheme has been submitted to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht, and it is open to the Deputy or any Member to scrutinise that report to see what progress that has been made. Some 1,500 people are now successfully participating in the scheme in the seven pilot local authority areas. We intend to increase the participation rate to more than 8,000 by the end of this year when the next wave is rolled out in 12 local authority areas. Progress is being made and we would welcome the Deputy's support for it. There can be no permanent solution until the new houses are built. I ask the Deputy to acknowledge that on the floor of the Dáil this morning.

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