Thank you very much. First of all, could I start off by welcoming the stuttering group from Ireland?

I welcome them warmly. They want to create awareness around stuttering. They have an event on in the audiovisual room at 2 p.m.

I want to declare quickly an interest in what I will speak on, namely self-catering in Ireland. I also want to highlight that I own a guesthouse. When I speak, I do so on behalf of the constituents I am here to represent and have been continuously on to me about this matter.

We have a housing crisis. That is very clear. We have to get more supply. That is very clear. But targeting people in the short-term letting sector is a flawed tactic. Up until now, operators of short-term lets in rent pressure zones needed to apply for planning permission to run their business but mostly, when they apply, they are refused. People who are short-term letting are more likely to leave their homes and properties lying idle for a family member or sell it rather than rent it out long-term. They do not want to go from short term to long term.

For example, Killarney is full up at the moment but it is not at capacity because of tourism or short-term lets but because a lot of free bed spaces in the town are taken up with people seeking asylum and refuge here. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that but it is putting a serious strain on services. For instance, Dr. Gary Stack was on Radio Kerry recently explaining the pressures that is putting on the medical service for those in the town.

The Government has said that it will regulate and manage the short-term lets and it will get more properties on a short-term basis back into the long-term rental market. This is not going to happen. The Government is actually instructing local authority enforcement officers to go out and frighten people into applying for planning which will not be granted and that the properties will simply lie idle as these operators, some of whom have operated in the short-term rental market for over 30 years, will not rent out long-term. The Government is trying its best to tell these people, who have worked so hard, saved up, paid for their houses or properties, got a mortgage and tried to make an income from it, what to do with their own property and that it is to be rented long-term. This will have the opposite effect entirely. It is so wrongful for the Government to think that it can force people to do something with the property that they own. We are living in a free society after all. These properties did not fall out of the sky to these people. They worked with the sweat off their brow and they broke their backs in many cases to build, maintain and own their properties. And now the Government thinks that it will dictate to them and tell them what they are to do with it? It will not happen.

I will start by welcoming the group. I am someone who had a very bad stutter as a young man and boy. I got help at the age of 16 years or so. I occasionally still do stutter. It is sometimes in the middle of a speech here in the Dáil. You know it is coming up and you still have to get through it. I very much recognise the group's role and work.

I think the people of this country have shown remarkable strength of character and lived up to the Bible story I often think of, namely that of the Samaritan not passing but providing shelter and support for those who are in real, most dramatic need. The people of our country have done that, in Kerry, Donegal, Clare and right the way around the country. The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, and his team have done the most incredibly difficult job. There is something like 58,000 people from Ukraine and 12,500 from international protection. That is way beyond - it is like a full Aviva Stadium has arrived. We have had to house people. That is at a really critical point. No one should underestimate the scale of the challenge and the difficult decisions we will have to make now to continue that approach, which is the right approach, I think we all agree. But it is going to be challenging.

No one is throwing away or disregarding the rights of property owners. We could have a wider discussion about our Constitution and whether we have the correct balance with the right to housing, property and so on but we are not going to go towards a system where the property rights are completely removed or taken away. There is real need for us to look at the private rental sector. We all know it is not working and it does need to change. It is not an attack on landlords or taking away their rights. We may need incentives or other measures but we need to be very flexible and quick particularly in the next six months with property because if the numbers keep coming - 1,500 every week - we will have to show further flexibility and innovation, working with landlords and the whole variety of accommodation providers that we might need to use. I do not disagree that we have to work with the landlords and make sure that it works for them in Killarney, Kerry and every part of the country but we do need to provide further accommodation and we will have to be very innovative in how we do that.

I will highlight an analogy on what Government gets and what Government wants. Take the Minister. This year, he wanted to stop people from going to the bogs and cutting turf. What did he get? He was personally the cause of more people going to the bog this year than ever before. People who used to cut two hoppers, for example, cut four or five. Their attitude was that they would fill the shed because he might stop us completely in the future. Thankfully, there are sheds full but it is no thanks to the Minister. That highlights that what the Government wants and tries to force people to do sometimes has the opposite effect. If the Minister thinks he can coerce, bully or force people into changing a system they have had - for example, short-term lets - or force someone who might have an apartment alongside the house and who is doing short-term lets, Airbnb or whatever into long-term lets, believe me it will have the opposite effect and will actually hurt what the Minister is trying to help, exactly as happened to him with the turf.

You have to have the people with you and work with them. There is a revolution happening in this country at the moment. It is a solar revolution. In Kerry and elsewhere, the Deputy can talk to the companies delivering that. They will say that the phone never stops ringing. It rings morning, noon and night, with Irish people waking up to the realisation that using our own clean, sustainable power systems from the sun, wind and elsewhere is the cheaper and better way to go. We are going gangbusters. It is taking off and it will continue for the years to come because it makes sense. It is cheaper, quicker, cleaner and easier.

We are gone what?

I am responding to the Deputy's point on the turf. It is the same story on retrofitting. I had a meeting with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland the other day. Similarly, it told me that Irish people across the country are investing in improving their homes - you do not need to burn things to keep warm - and then people have a valuable, healthy house. That is what is happening. Tens of thousands of people are investing in that way. Similarly, we need to get people to invest in property and in the rental sector-----

Thank you, Minister.

-----both short-term and long-term.