Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Existing legislation provides the HSE with the authority to refuse, suspend or terminate payment of a rent supplement in the case of a person who has been required to deliver up possession of a dwelling provided by a housing authority or an approved body where the reasons for that requirement include anti-social behaviour or the interests of good estate management.

In regard to private rented accommodation, tenancy arrangements are a contract between the landlord and the tenant. It comes back to that issue. If there is anti-social behaviour, the primary onus is on the landlord to deal with it. I gather Senator Ryan is asking what we would do in circumstances where there is a rogue landlord and a rogue tenant. I will reflect on this issue because it has validity. We need to resolve these types of issues, although they cannot be easily answered. I accept we cannot have anti-social behaviour taking place and, on the other hand, we cannot have people sleeping on the streets. We need to reflect on how we will deal with this very tricky issue. We all know of areas where people involved in anti-social behaviour have literally cleaned out whole estates and left estates with rows of boarded up houses, which is a major problem.