Unfortunately, I cannot accept the amendment. The amendment proposes a provision that a social housing appeal shall be made to an independent appeals officer located within the Housing Agency. This would be inefficient and administratively unworkable because 31 separate local authorities would be submitting appeals to a single office, which would be operationally impractical at scale, given the volume of social housing appeals dealt with across all local authorities. This is in addition to the financial cost of its…

Children are excluded from the lawful residency requirement. It is difficult to see how, if their parents or one of their parents is living here, a child would not also be habitually resident. Family reunification is planned and intentional. It is a very different scenario. The examples given by the Senator seem to be more focused on joint family reunification, which is a different matter altogether.

As I set out earlier in the debate, there will be careful and detailed monitoring of the application of this legislation and any data created from it as well. That is very much the intention with this legislation.

I am happy to provide a brief reply. We are satisfied that the residency requirement in section 20 of the completed final draft is compatible with the Constitution and European and international law. Of course, local authorities are public authorities. They are independent in their decision-making. They have to abide by the law and are subject to the Equal Status Acts but, as Minister, I have no role in their compliance with this legislation. Where local authorities are in breach of the Equal Status Acts, there are…

I cannot accept amendment No. 21. This amendment proposes the introduction of a social housing passport allowing households to transfer between local authority areas while retaining their original waiting list or transfer list position. The amendment as it stands is well-intentioned. However, such an approach as drafted gives rise to significant legislative, operational and fairness concerns and is, therefore, not suitable for inclusion in this Bill. The current social housing system is based on local assessment of…

One of the biggest problems is that while some local authorities are now making significant headway in the delivery of social housing and their waiting times for people to access social housing have fallen significantly, other local authorities are not stepping up to the mark. They are not making the same effort or using the available resources from the Department. We are now getting a significant variation in waiting times as well. We need to get all local authorities to deliver social housing so that we get the w…

I am pleased to bring the Housing and Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026 before the House. This Bill is structured in five Parts. Part 2 deals with amendments to the Housing Act 1988, while Part 3 deals with amendments to the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 around the eligibility for social housing. Part 4 deals with amendments to the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014, while Part 5 deals with a number of amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act 2004. Amendments to th…

I thank Senators for their contributions. I will address some of the issues that have been raised. In relation to Senator McCormack, it is very disappointing that the Sinn Féin spokesperson, or any Sinn Féin Senator, did not remain for the answers, but anyway. Irish migrants returning are not affected by this legislation. It reflects current rules. For Irish migrants returning, it would be very straightforward for them to establish habitual residence. They would, of course, already have a legal entitlement to be he…

They were left with a housing crisis of too many homes, which they turned into a housing crisis of too few. In four and a half years they built 75 homes.

If they had actually put policies in to address the homelessness crisis at that time-----

I know, and I am taking responsibility-----

-----for what I am doing. Those in the Labour Party should take responsibility for what it did in government the last time.

On Senator Higgins's point, children are exempted from lawful residency requirements. We are not just worried about social housing numbers. We will increase the social housing limits, which will increase the number of people under social housing limits. Any suggestion that we are doing this to somehow reduce the number of people on the social housing lists will be proven incorrect when we increase the social housing limits, which in turn will increase the number of people on the social housing lists. I am always co…

I move amendment No. 1: In page 5, line 10, to delete “Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009” and substitute the following: “Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009; to provide for additional eligibility criteria for access to certain services provided to homeless persons under section 10 of the Housing Act 1988; to provide for withdrawal of such services in certain cases; to provide for an appeal in respect of such withdrawal; for those purposes to amend the Housing Act 1988”. On Second Stage of the Hous…

I move: That the Bill be recommitted in respect of amendments Nos. 1 and 8 to 11, inclusive.

A lot of issues were raised. I will try to address as many as I can. In relation to the time and the use of the word "night", the definition of night time differs greatly between 21 June and 21 December. That would have created an extraordinary level of uncertainty as to when somebody can go in or not. That is why a time was chosen. The Deputy can argue about the time, but certainly using the word "night" would have given a great level of uncertainty. That is why a time was put in there for that matter. Nobody has …

In relation to being able to reapply versus make an appeal, any appeal takes time. These people are in a crisis at that point in time - we agree on that - so the quickest method is to reapply rather than going through a complicated appeals process. In relation to the two nights for the initial situation, if that person cannot make other arrangements and is at risk of rough sleeping, such as over a bank holiday weekend, the local authority would be expected to give them another night. The whole purpose of this safet…

On Deputy Gould's point, the woman in that very traumatic situation has been provided emergency accommodation in the past and there is no reason she would not be provided it again in the future. If there is any way the Deputy wants me to help with that woman, who is in a very difficult situation, he should please provide the details. It is the same for that Palestinian family. We are always happy to intervene. I am not going to comment on Deputy Coppinger's usual self-righteous nonsense suggesting she has a monopol…

This is too often what we get, unfortunately-----

It is very easy to come in here with your personal invective but you have to engage with policy. That is what we need to be doing rather than your usual commentary in relation to it-----