I will raise the issue of evictions, which I raised last week. The Tánaiste has probably heard that a number of people are facing eviction from a retirement village in Sligo. I am completely shocked by this. It is described as involving people in their 80s and couples. One couple in their 80s have a child with disabilities in his 50s who is facing eviction from this place, which is a retirement home. There is another example in Galway, with a mass eviction at Cúirt Éigis in Ballybane, where 14 households have received a termination to quit their home. We are seeing thousands of these cases across the country. I am really concerned that the lack of action from this Government to prevent these evictions is leading to huge misery and trauma. People cannot find properties within the housing assistance payment, HAP. The tenant in situ scheme has been cut. The new measures do not apply to hundreds of thousands of existing rental households. What is the Government doing to prevent more evictions, to prevent these people from being evicted and to ensure these people have somewhere to go to? Where are these elderly people going to go?

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It has also been raised by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, who represents Sligo. There are a specific set of circumstances in that a private owner of a facility has decided to sell. I do not mean to call it a facility; it is people's home. It would be worth inquiring whether there are any solutions that can be explored through local authorities or State agencies to assist there. I am not yet apprised of the full facts but it seems to be a particular set of circumstances. More broadly, and we have different views on this, I will make the point that the rental reforms we brought in aimed to create a balance in increasing the supply of tenancies and rental markets, and providing a suite of new protection measures for tenants, including the six-year tenancy and the extension of rent pressure zones nationwide.

What about all these people now?

There are clear rules and laws that need to be followed. There is also the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB. We have seen some examples of where people tried to deviate from the law. That cannot be allowed either and was not allowed in the case that was highlighted in this House recently. The RTB has a very important role to play in this too.