A reported 37 families in Hazelwood in Bridgetown, County Wexford, were hit with eviction notices on Friday. These families are panicked, stressed and worried about the upheaval in their lives. There is a serious lack of homes available to rent in the area, and even if they could find a new place, they would be hit with massive rent increases due to the Government's new legislation. People feel that their landlord is taking advantage of the new rules.

Where are these families supposed to go? The Minister for housing has talked the talk about standing up for these tenants, but following meetings with the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, and the council, as things stand today, these families still face eviction. Big talk from the Minister will not keep these families in their homes. What concrete action will the Taoiseach take to protect their rights and ensure they are not evicted?

It is a matter of very serious concern that a landlord would behave in this manner. The reports were raised over the weekend with regard to the serving of 36 notices of termination by that landlord. The Minister, Deputy Browne, asked the Residential Tenancies Board to engage with the affected tenants and with Wexford County Council to ensure the impacted tenants' rights are protected. He has also been in touch with Wexford County Council to be supportive of those tenants. I have not seen the report back from the RTB yet. I will work with the Minister for housing to get access to that report to see where the situation now lies.

At the weekend, the Taoiseach's appalling new rules for renters came into effect. To mark that change, we learned of the eviction notices issued to 36 homes in Wexford, all owned by the same large landlord, right in the heart of the housing Minister's own constituency. My colleague Deputy Lawlor has been dealing with the families involved, in excess of 100 people including many children, many of whom will not qualify for the housing assistance payment, HAP, or the council housing list.

The Taoiseach's new law is unleashing fear on the people he is meant to represent, and there is nothing but silence from the housing Minister.

It seems that the Minister had to wait for his civil servants to come back to work this week to explain his own law to him. It seems the law is so complex that he was not able to provide any clarification to the families affected. There are two questions. If the Minister for housing cannot understand his own laws, how on earth is any renter meant to know their rights now? Second, we are all seeing a real-time surge in notices to quit. The Wexford case is a really serious and extreme example-----

The Taoiseach to respond now.

Is the Taoiseach monitoring this situation? We are seeing more and more-----

The time is up, Deputy.

-----eviction notices.

Of course, these eviction notices came before the new rules came into place-----

It was the same weekend.

I should not have to explain that to the Deputy. She should know that and she did not acknowledge that.

It was on the Friday.

The new laws provide far greater and stronger protection to tenants than the old system did and Deputy Bacik was the very person who alleged that we ignored the Housing Commission. The Housing Commission said that the rent protection zones, RPZs-----

A radical reset-----

The Deputy has had her say.

-----could not stay as they were and that we needed to reform them. We bought in the Housing Agency to come up with proposals. It did so and we have taken the decisions to reform. The Deputy will always sit on the fence on this one because electorally nothing else will suit her or suffice. That is the truth.

That is not true.

Disgraceful.

Deputy Bacik calls for reform but when reform happens and decisions are taken - none of this is easy because it is a complex landscape - she will continue to sit on the fence.

We are not-----

What happened in Wexford is unacceptable.

We are not sitting on any fence.

The Minister sent the Residential Tenancies Board down.