Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The country is enthralled by the continuing soap opera involving the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, and the Department of Finance on what the Government is to do about homelessness. It would do justice to "Fair City" and all the other TV soap operas. We have been following this with great interest through the Irish Independent, which has been referred to as the downtown office of the Government parties for disseminating the latest blow-by-blow accounts of what is going on between the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan. On a very serious note, homelessness is escalating to the point where it has gone beyond being a national crisis; everybody is now very much aware of it, yet there seems to be no great resolution.

According to the newspaper today, the latest episode in this soap opera is that the capping of rents is now being considered, along with the introduction of legislation that will make it more difficult for landlords to evict tenants. There is sufficient legal protection for tenants. What is really needed is a belated acknowledgement that there is an urgent need to increase the housing allowance, the supplementary allowance. In various exchanges I have had here on this issue over the past year or two with the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, she has said that increasing the rent supplement would act as a pull factor in that it would increase rents and that landlords would automatically push up rents. They are pushing them up anyway. If this latest episode of the soap opera comes to fruition, it will be obvious that, between now and the time any proposed legislation comes before these Houses, landlords will immediately start putting up rents again. It is a catch-22 situation. It seems that in order to help the poor unfortunate people who cannot get rental accommodation because it is beyond their financial means, the most obvious solution, at least in the short to medium term, is to increase the rent supplement.Will the Leader convey my concerns to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and ask him to come to the House to discuss his brief in this regard?

While I welcome unreservedly the reported investment designed to improve the efficiency of the Garda Síochána in its fight against crime, question marks are already being raised about the more than 270 vehicles that are to be provided not only as to when they will come on stream, but where they will be apportioned and who will drive them. The recruitment of trainee gardaí, welcome as it is, is only addressing an issue that has been with this Government since its inception, when it stopped recruitment. That resulted in a reduction in garda numbers from 14,500 to 12,000. In many parts of the country, particularly in rural areas where Garda stations have closed, there is a real need to provide more resources. The new investment is welcome, particularly in the information technology area and for the allocation of new high-powered vehicles to tackle the activities of thugs who use the motorway system around the country to scare the living daylights out of people living in rural areas. However, we must have answers to the questions that have arisen.

Will the Leader invite the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Michael Ring, to the House before Christmas to outline the Government's strategy on sport? I was present recently at a well-attended and comprehensive briefing by the Federation of Irish Sport, the umbrella body for all sporting organisations. One of the key priorities emphasised at that briefing was the need for a national strategy on sport.