John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I understand the Senator's position, and perhaps this is the difference between our points of view. I really do not think any Government agency should know whether somebody is gay or straight or not, but I think we can address the issue. It would serve no purpose as an optional question on the form. It would not be an indication as to the amount of LGBTQI people who are homeless. Is there a way of using the agencies' expertise in dealing with homeless people and ascertaining on a confidential basis the proportion of homeless people in any given local authority area who are LGBTQI? I am one of those who believes the State already has far too much information on people, and the State has no purpose in having information such as this. However, can the agencies that work with these people bring this information by declaring real figures in an anonymous fashion and not through an optional preference on a questionnaire? People could deal with the agencies face to face and then we would see whether there is an issue. I suspect the issue does exist in other countries, and there is no reason to think there would not be some sort of affect in Ireland. We could then deal with it in Ireland, but I just do not trust the Government as much as the Senator does.