Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. As I said earlier, this is a sad case. We all sympathise with Micheline and her family. As the Deputy mentioned, there are approximately 100 or 200 people over 65 years of age in emergency accommodation. That represents approximately 2%, but it is still a lot. There are more than 100 people over the age of 65 in emergency accommodation. Many of those became homeless while the eviction ban was in place. The eviction ban did not cause homelessness to fall. It rose nearly every month in which the ban was in place. An eviction ban does not provide a solution but delays the point at which a solution can be found. As I said earlier, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has been in touch with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to examine options, including the provision of social housing, the tenant in situscheme, whereby the council could buy the property, or an alternative housing assistance payment, HAP, tenancy. More than 2,000 HAP tenancies have been created so far this year. It would be much better to have a solution in the next few weeks than to put off finding a solution for three or six months. I do not think that would be the best outcome.

See this speech in context