My question relates to the commitment in the programme for Government to introduce a range of measures to keep people in the family home. Nothing concrete has been delivered from that commitment and we learned this week that Permanent TSB is to sell thousands of family homes to vulture funds. A State-owned bank is selling off the mortgages of working families to unregulated vulture funds. Nothing has changed under the Government. It is still in bed with the vulture funds and will not regulate or tax them. Now it is feeding them. It is throwing people at their feet and washing its hands of the issue. Where is the Independent Alliance? Its members were supposed to be the so-called saviours and champions of struggling homeowners.

Will the Minister who is the owner of Permanent TSB tell it to stop feeding the vulture funds? Will he pick up the telephone and tell Jeremy Masding that State banks are no longer allowed to sell to vulture funds? Will the Government support my legislation, the Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) (Amendment) Bill 2017, which will, for once and for all, regulate vulture funds to ensure people will be protected from them?

The Deputy said I had misled the House. That is not the case.

It is the case.

It is.

The Deputy knows as well as I do, as does Deputy Eoin Ó Broin, that a motion was passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas in November to refer this issue to an Oireachtas joint committee for approval.

That happened last year.

The Minister agreed-----

Order, please.

Consultation and approval are provided for in the legislation. Deputy Pearse Doherty is wrong on this issue. The legislation is not yet in place, but we have followed the spirit of it.

Surely the Minister agreed-----

That goes for all sides of the House.

The Minister is deliberately trying to mislead the House.

The Deputy has received details already and knows exactly what happened here. He is trying to mislead the House.

The Tánaiste was asked a question and delegated the Minister to answer it. I have given him that opportunity. I ask Members on all sides to listen to the Minister. I have no control over the content of his answer.

Somebody needs to have control.

More is the pity, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

On the question of what the Government is doing to protect people and keep them in their homes, it has introduced a series of initiatives, from the Abhaile scheme to ensuring there is free legal aid and looking at a new mortgage-to-rent scheme in order that we can provide options to keep people in their homes, even when they have difficult debt issues to deal with.