Some 38 Deputies have indicated, eight of them having been carried forward from yesterday. I plead with Members to stick to the one-minute time limit. I call Deputy McDonald.

The ban on evictions, notices to quit and rent increases expires on Monday next. As the Taoiseach will be aware, tens of thousands of renters who have lost income due to Covid-19 are protected by this ban and without it, they will be immediately at risk of eviction or perhaps homelessness. There were worrying reports in last weekend's papers that the Taoiseach is being advised not to extend the ban. I remind him that during the general election when we in Sinn Féin spoke about a rent freeze and applying protections for those renters, we were told it could not be done. In fact, many went so far as to say that to do so would be unconstitutional, yet those protections were then introduced, albeit in the context of a public health emergency. Will the Taoiseach clarify the Government's position? I ask him to commit to extending these protections, not just to October but to year's end, and to also commit to introducing a rent arrears debt resolution scheme, including the option of partial or full rent write-downs.

There was no Covid-19 during the general election and the assertions made then bore no relationship to what subsequently happened. The eviction ban and freeze on rent increases was grounded in the emergency public health legislation arising out of Covid-19. There are issues around that but the Government is examining them. We are conscious that it has helped public health by preventing homelessness and reducing homelessness, evictions and so on, and that that trend would continue. There has been a relaxation of emergency measures under the roadmap but the Government is giving this very detailed scrutiny right now and we will consider it at Government meetings over the coming weeks.