As I listened to some of the other speakers, I thought about some of the comments the Minister made at the housing committee and in this Chamber. I just do not get it. The Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, are intelligent people. We have seen the housing crisis go from a crisis to an emergency. We know that homelessness is off the charts and homelessness is only recorded as people living in emergency accommodation. It does not include the people who are living with three or four generations in the same home. It does not include the hidden homeless, the true figure that is there. When the Minister and Minister of State look at the homelessness figures and the housing crisis and see house prices, rents and evictions going up, do they really, in their heart of hearts, believe that this Bill is going to solve that? I do not believe they could, if they are the intelligent men I believe them to be. The Minister and Minister of State inherited an unbelievable housing emergency and are they are desperate to find solutions. The big investment companies, the big speculators and the vulture funds came in and produced a document for the Government that they claimed would deliver housing. It will not. The only way to solve the crisis is through supply. It is by building social and affordable housing. Think of all the people who are living in HAP and RAS properties in the private rental market. If the Government delivers social and affordable housing and takes those people out of the private market, that frees up all the rental accommodation then for the renters who badly need it. I talked to a couple of people over the weekend. They said to me that this is so cruel. They might not feel the consequences on 1 March, but they will in the future. They are terrified because their rents are too high already. Their rents are through the roof. They are struggling to hang on. I talked to a girl who is college educated. She has a child. She can just about afford the rent. What happens when she cannot afford it? Will the Minister answer that question? What happens when her rent resets to the market value and she cannot afford it? This is a person with a good job and a good education who does everything right. What happens to her? Where is the support? This lady will not qualify for HAP or RAS. Do you know what she told me? She said that nearly all her friends are in the same position. They are renting. They cannot get mortgages because the price of housing is so high. The price of housing is so high because the Government did not build houses for years. It left it to the market. The Government has a fascination with the idea that the market will solve the problem. Fine Gael came up with this solution after the financial crash. Fianna Fáil should have learned from the financial crash that the one thing we cannot rely on to sort out problems in housing and health is the market. The major problems must be sorted out by government. Rents are not just unaffordable. They are crippling families. Some people will not be able to move for six years as a consequence of this legislation because, if they move, they know they will pay the new market rent wherever they go. I talked to people who live together even though their relationships have broken up because they have nowhere to go. I have been contacted by women who are in abusive relationships, either physical or mental. Where do they go with their kids? I have helped families in Cork to access emergency accommodation and then, within a couple of weeks, they are asked to leave because there is no capacity for them. There are consequences. When I became a TD I was told, "Thomas, you must always be aware of the unintended consequences". There are so many negative consequences to this legislation that the Minister is either not considering or he does not get. It is not only me who is saying this. We were all in at the housing committee, including the Minister and Minister of State, and all the experts told us that rents, evictions and homelessness will increase. What will also increase is profit for the big investment funds, vulture funds and speculators. They look at Ireland and see a place where they can make a profit. It goes back to "greed is good". The Government's job is to protect people and ensure they have a safe place to live and raise their families. The amendments call for a review and a report. The one thing I have learned since I came up here is to follow the science and the data. Figures do not lie, and what the figures have said here is that this Bill will have a catastrophic effect on rents and drive them through the roof. They are already too high. I spoke with a lady who is on a disability payment and receiving the housing assistance payment, HAP. The only way she can keep the roof over her head is that every month, her retired father gives her money. Her rent is so high that HAP is not enough. She is on a disability payment and only for her dad, she would be homeless. I know another family in the same position. I was talking to a man who explained to me that his brothers are helping him out with the rent. He had lost his home because the property where he was living was being sold. The family had no choice but to take whatever accommodation there was. The cost of that accommodation is so high that they cannot afford it and he is being supported by his family. What will happen when, as a consequence of this Bill, rents are driven higher? There is so much more I could say but my colleagues have touched on a lot of it. We all make mistakes in life. There but for the grace of God go all of us. The Government has made a mistake. Security of tenure for six years would be a positive step if it did not allow market rents to drive so many people out. People watching this debate realise what will happen as a consequence of this Bill finally being passed. The worry I have is the people out there tonight who do not know what the Government is doing and who will only realise the consequences of this legislation in the weeks, months or years to come. People will be left terrified and without hope. The Government cannot sort out all the problems but what the Minister and Minister of State can do is give people hope. This Bill will not give people hope. It will give profits to the rich and super-rich and will drive ordinary working people into the hands of moneylenders. What happens when people go to moneylenders and they cannot pay the money back? Where do they go? What happens when they borrow from family and friends and that money runs out? Where do they go? The Bill is a mistake. The Government is following the lobbyists and it is time to step back. We will work with the Government. I will leave the Minister and Minister of State with this. We will work with the Government to bring forward a Bill that will deliver housing and rents that are affordable and that will make a change for people. We can all commit to that but not to this Bill.

Sentiment score: -0.03

I support this amendment. I had a gentleman come to me a few weeks ago. He is a paramedic working in the ambulance service and he was homeless. He went through a relationship break-up. He could find nowhere to rent. He has a good job and is working. The only service he could be offered in Cork was Simon Community Night Light. You go in at 11 o'clock at night and leave at 8 o'clock in the morning. He was going to work at 4 o'clock. He was in the ambulance service. He was not sure what time he would be home at. He could not go to work for a few days because the only place he could lie down was in the Night Light. How is it possible? I had another guy in a similar situation. Where he was renting, the landlord, a small landlord, was selling the property. He was a security worker. He did door staff and worked in bars, nightclubs and fast food restaurants late at night. The doors close at half past 11, so he is sleeping in his car. Then if you are not engaging with the emergency accommodation, you are not classified as homeless. It is a catch-22. Because you cannot get in somewhere to put down your head, you are not homeless. How is that right? I spoke to a girl a while ago who is in accommodation and she and the other people in there believe the accommodation is not fit for inhabitants. It is homelessness services. She believes HIQA, or someone like HIQA, should be brought in to audit these properties. Where is their dignity? She is there with a young child. She has been in there for over a year. I know people who have done three years, three Christmases in emergency accommodation, people with children - Santa Claus. Some people might not get this but in Cork, and I am sure nationally now, we see a drop in homelessness by a small bit in December. I know some of the people. If they have kids, they try to go home or get into a friend's house so that their children can have Santa Claus. In January, they have to go back into the emergency accommodation. I am dealing with a man whose partner died tragically by suicide last summer. She was on the verge of a home being bought by the tenant in situ scheme and tragically she died. He now is trying to raise their three-year-old son. He contacted me over Christmas. I had to go up to him because he was so upset. I was seriously worried for him. Cork City Council knew his ex-partner. She was a lovely lady, a vibrant young woman. The weight of homelessness, the weight of not being able to provide a roof for your child, the weight of always being short of money and I suppose a thousand other things, because when you are in such a desperate situation - everything then combines on you. I was talking to that man. He works in the building line, he is in sport, hurling, mixed martial arts. He is a man's man, you would say. He cried to me on Christmas week because he had nowhere for his three-year-old child, his young son, and himself to go to. Jesus, this is what we are dealing with. The Ministers say this Bill will improve things. I do not believe it will. When will it improve things? We have seen an increase in evictions since the Government announced it was bringing in this Bill on 1 March. I am not sure the Government gets it. People now have notices to quit and that is an eviction notice. "Notice to quit" is the nice way of putting it. It is an eviction notice. They are not all going to hit on 1 March. They are going to hit in April, May, June, July - right up the whole summer. We will see a steady increase in the number of people becoming homeless. These will be more and more families. Even if you have a job, there is no security that you will be able to find somewhere to rent. I hold clinics on Mondays and I am now so busy that I am booking people two weeks in advance to see me. A couple came in to me last Monday. They told me that last year, their property was to be bought through the tenant in situ scheme. Happy days. Then the Government pulled it last April. I have the document that says that on 4 April last year, the Government pulled the scheme. Their landlord sold their property. They got €10,000 from the credit union to buy a mobile home to put in the back garden of a friend who lives just outside the city. They have two daughters, 11 and 13 years old. They told me about the shame the father has. He is a man and he is working. His wife is working and they have two kids and they are living in a mobile home. This is because the Government pulled the tenant in situ scheme. Granted, the Government reinstated it afterwards with new rules and regulations, which they would have still qualified for, but the landlord was so sick of waiting around for this Government that he sold the property and they were evicted. I will ask the Minister a straight question, which I asked Cork City Council, namely, who is going to give them a house? They are willing to pay, but as for the tenant in situ scheme, earlier the Minister, Deputy Browne, said he was looking to provide hope. Where is the hope for them? The Government also talks about preventing people going into emergency accommodation and preventing homelessness. The one thing that was working was the tenant in situ scheme and the Government broke it by modifying it. The representatives of the Government come in here and make promises to people. The only promises that this Bill will deliver will be increased rent, increased evictions and increased homelessness. I will finish with this. I swear to God I could talk about this all night because of the people I deal with every week. I do not know what I would do if I was in that position as a father knowing that there was nowhere for my children to go. Jesus Christ, God forgive me for cursing. How could any man or woman cope with that? How many children must become homeless before the Minister and the Government accept their policies are wrong? It is not just that they are wrong and not delivering, the policies are the problem because vested interests, vulture funds, speculators and profit are being put before ordinary, hard-working people who just want to have a safe home. How many children must become homeless?

Sentiment score: 0.01

The Minister of State said no one has a monopoly on compassion. I have a couple of questions for him and the Minister. How many children must become homeless before they admit their policies are wrong and are contributing to making homelessness worse? It is a straightforward question. Will they give a commitment that this Bill will not drive up rents? Everyone on this side of the Chamber and every expert who presented to the housing committee said it will but the Government is saying we are all wrong. Will they give a commitment that the Bill will not drive up notices to quit and evictions over the coming months? Will they give a commitment that the Bill will reduce homelessness? None of us believes any of those claims. I have asked direct, straight and hard questions. The Minister and the Ministers of State are telling us the Bill will help to solve the housing crisis and homelessness emergency and provide additional homes. We do not believe it will do so. We believe the result will be the opposite. We were told we were wrong by the previous Ministers, Deputy O'Brien, Simon Coveney and Eoghan Murphy. They brought in policies and told us we were all wrong and these would fix them. The Government is coming back here again now telling us we are wrong again when there are over 5,000 children homeless tonight, and that is not even counting the hidden homeless. Can we have straight answers to straight questions? The Minister, Deputy Browne, said there will be a review in 12 months after this legislation comes in to see how it operates. In 12 months' time, after this has come in, if rents, evictions and child homelessness increase, will the Government fall on its sword and admit it was wrong?

Sentiment score: -0.07

I have asked the Minister straight questions. At least, we should get answers to those questions. The Minister said a while ago that there will be a review in 12 months. If that review does not show an improvement in matters, will the Government fall on its sword, admit it is wrong and at least let the Opposition bring forward solutions? I asked three other questions about the rise in rents, the rise in evictions and the rise in homelessness. These are questions I am looking for an answer to.

Sentiment score: -0.04