Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I respect the sincerity in which the Deputy asks this question. I have always said, and I wish to be fair to Deputies across the Chamber who have worked with me on it, that this issue is above political to-ing and fro-ing. Many measures are being taken and examined. We are constantly examining other ways in which we can facilitate. We listed 80 actions and implemented them before Christmas and this had a huge impact. We said we would create more emergency accommodation and we did so, in fact we created more, and it has been taken up. We have a protocol with the Department of Social Protection on rent supplement and many tenancies have been maintained as a result of interventions by Threshold. The Private Residential Tenancies Board, PRTB, is currently tendering for a tenant's rights promotion programme. The housing assistance payment, HAP, is being rolled out for homeless people in Dublin. We have worked with NAMA.

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