Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

The amendment is not necessary. Section 22(4) empowers the Minister to make regulations governing the matters that housing authorities must include in their allocation scheme, which is a mechanism for them to allocate dwellings fairly and transparently to individual households. Section 22(5) provides sufficient scope for housing authorities, as appropriate, to reserve a portion of dwellings in their areas for allocation to particular classes of household. This allows them, based on the identified housing needs in their area, to target support, where appropriate, to particular types of household need, for example, the homeless, Travellers, people with disabilities and single adult households. In those circumstances, I ask the Senator to withdraw the amendment.