Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. Sinn Féin conducted an online survey of renters recently and more than 1,00 renters replied with a good geographical age and income spread. While the survey does not claim to be scientifically representative, it gives us an insight. Some 60% of respondents said they had lost income due to Covid-19 and a significant number, almost 70%, believed they would have rent arrears of up to €3,000 after the first three months. A further 13% expected the rent arrears to go up as much as €5,000.

We would not have expected significant rent arrears in the first month because people would have paid their months' rent in advance and possibly even in the second month. However, given that a disproportionate number of those who are on the pandemic unemployment benefit, PUP, are young renters in sectors of the economy that are not going to recover fully, certainly, until the very end of this year, will the Minister give a commitment to work with the Opposition and landlords' and tenants' representative organisations to put together a proper pathway to deal with what could be a significant level of rent arrears on the other side of Covid-19?

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