Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for bringing forward this Bill which enables us to have this important debate. The timing is helpful because of the very distressing numbers that were published this week. We was an increase in the numbers of people, both families and individuals, entering emergency accommodation in February. This is very distressing for the people who had to go into emergency accommodation. It is also very distressing for those who are still in emergency accommodation and for the general public because of the strong social contract that we have in this country. People do not want to see their fellow citizens in distress; they want to see them in homes. That is the whole purpose of the Rebuilding Ireland programme. The aim is to rebuild our broken housing sector and to bring security and safety to people who do not currently have it because of bad decisions that were made in the past.

I take my responsibilities in this area very seriously and that is why this is so hugely disappointing for me. What we have seen in different months over the last two years is different things happening in relation to emergency accommodation. What we saw in December and January, for the first time in recent years, was more families exiting emergency accommodation than entering it for two months in a row. That was very positive and I said last month that I hoped it was indicative of a trend, given all the house building that we are seeing and the extra protections that we have provided to renters. I hoped that because those aspects of Rebuilding Ireland were starting to prove themselves, although we still have some way to go, the tide was beginning to turn in terms of the numbers in emergency accommodation. As we know now, however, that was not the case in February and the numbers have increased.

Deputy Ó Broin is an intelligent and capable person, of that there is no doubt but it is beneath him to suggest, as he did yesterday on radio, that there is some conspiracy between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil against people in housing insecurity and those going into emergency accommodation. It is also beneath him to suggest that I have massaged the figures. When I brought the mistake by the local authorities to public attention, Deputy Ó Broin accepted at the joint Oireachtas committee that it was a mistake. I see that the Deputy is shaking his head now but I have it on record that he accepted that it was a mistake. It is also beneath Deputy Ó Broin and others to offer simple solutions that will not help the situation. I will explain why they will not help and why they may, in fact, run the risk of making things worse for lots of people.

Deputy Ó Broin said that we need to replace Rebuilding Ireland but I am not sure what parts of it he wants to replace. Would he replace the help to buy scheme-----

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