The Taoiseach suggested the Government's Housing for All policy is working. I would like him to try to explain that to three people in the Gallery. They are Tony, Radoslaw and Seán, who are three of the five remaining tenants in the St. Helen's Court complex in Dún Laoghaire. This Friday they will be at the Four Courts, where a vulture fund will seek an enforcement order to evict them from their homes. They have never done anything wrong and have always paid their rent. Once upon a time they were part of a community of 20 tenants who all lived there. It was a fabulous community, which has been destroyed by the greed of two successive vulture funds. It is fair to say their lives have been ruined for four years by the greed and ruthlessness of vulture funds and the failure of this and previous Governments to address the causes of the persecution they have suffered at the hands of vulture funds.

Their story is not just a story of their persecution but, to be honest, it tells the story of tens of thousands of people who are victims of the housing crisis and the failure of this and successive Governments to deal with the matter. Why do I say this? This vulture fund has no reason to evict these people but it is allowed to evict them. Legally, the vulture fund is allowed to just throw these people out on the street. They have paid their rent and never done anything wrong but they can be thrown out on the street.

These tenants receive the housing assistance payment, HAP. Seán and Radoslaw are both working and Tony, who is now retired, was a healthcare worker. He has had a stroke as a result of the stress he suffered over the past four years at the hands of these vulture funds. They are HAP recipients, so in other words they are meant to be socially housed, although they are not. They are being thrown out on the street and the council has no obligation to rehouse such people. They may well end up in homeless accommodation.

This would not be such a problem if there was social housing but there are 5,000 families on the housing list waiting ten to 20 years to get a house. These people are included in that list. The tenants get €960, the homeless HAP rate, to find alternative accommodation but the problem is that rents are more than €2,000 per month in our area. What is really shocking is that not only will they end up on the street unless the Government intervenes but there are now only five tenants where there used to be 20. For two years, 15 fully refurbished apartments that could have housed people on the housing list have been sitting empty because a greedy vulture fund can make more profit by sitting on empty properties and evicting other tenants than renting them to people who need them.

What is the Taoiseach going to do about that for them and others facing similar persecution by vulture funds and the failure of Governments to deal with the housing crisis?

Everything must be done to protect tenants and we are doing that through a variety of legislation and so forth. The Deputy asked about St. Helen's Court in Dún Laoghaire and landlords issuing notices to vacate to five HAP tenants at that location. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is working with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to ensure the five remaining households - three singles and two families - do not fall into homelessness as a result of their tenancies ending at St. Helen's Court. Viewings of available homes have been facilitated by the placefinder services and eligible households have been provided with access to the choice-based letting systems. Two of the five families have recently been offered or are due to be offered alternative accommodation imminently. The Department has advised that recent court procedures taken by the property owner to repossess the properties was adjourned. That is the existing position.

The Deputy knows the HAP programme is State assistance to provide for social housing. Since the Government came to office two years ago we have ramped up and will continue to ramp up the provision of social housing through direct builds. We want to create a much larger stock of social housing in the country, with a target this year of 9,000 social housing units between approved social housing bodies and the local authorities. That is key to rebalancing the number of tenants on HAP compared with those in local authority housing. We want more people in approved social housing body rentals and local authorities and in cost rental units, which will be well below market levels.

Housing for All was launched last September and very significant progress has been made with 35,000 new commencements, as I said the largest number since 2008. A number of measures have also been introduced under the Residential Tenancies Act with the objective of improving security of tenure for tenants. For example, the Tyrrelstown amendment provides that where a landlord proposes to sell ten or more units in a single development at the same time, the sale would be subject to the existing tenants remaining in situ other than in exceptional circumstances. That aims to strike a balance between landlords' constitutionally protected rights to sell their property and achieve a fair return on investment with a tenant's right to security of tenure. It provides security of tenure in the interests of the common social good.

The Housing Commission that is now established is examining matters such as tenure, standards, sustainability and quality-of-life issues in the provision of housing. It is also examining wording for amendments to the Constitution with regard to the Government's commitment to hold a referendum on housing, which will be important in establishing a balance between security of tenure and the constitutional protection that currently exists.

That is all very interesting. Will the Taoiseach guarantee that Tony, Radoslaw, Seán and the other two households remaining in St. Helen's Court will not be thrown into emergency accommodation after Friday's court proceedings? That is what they want to hear. That is the commitment they need. Beyond that, why are the vulture funds allowed to do this for nothing other than greed? Why are they allowed to evict people who have done nothing wrong and sit for two years on 15 empty properties when there are people crying out for accommodation? It is even worse now. There are 5,000 people on the housing list and Ukrainian people are fleeing a desperate situation of war but this vulture fund is allowed to sit on empty properties and evict tenants who have done nothing wrong.

The State should step in, buy that block and force its purchase. The Government must also change the law because they got around the Tyrrelstown amendment. They tried to evict more than ten households. The Tyrrelstown amendment protected those people, so they evicted seven households. Give these people that guarantee and do something to prevent vulture funds treating people like this.

The Tyrrelstown amendment was the optimal that could be achieved within the current constitutional framework. That is my understanding and we must work with the practical and real legal framework.

The Government can change the law.

It would require a change to the Constitution. We are working on an amendment to the Constitution related to housing. It is one of the tasks of the new Commission on Housing. With regard to Radoslaw, Tony and the other tenants who are the victims of this unacceptable behaviour, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is working with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to ensure the five remaining households do not fall into homelessness as a result of their tenancies ending at St. Helen's Court. That is ongoing work. As I said, according to advice I have received, two of the families have recently been offered or are due to be offered alternative accommodation imminently.

What about the rest of them?