I congratulate former President, Mrs. Mary McAleese, on her robust defence of Irish J1 visa students in the face of the scurrilous and deeply upsetting article in The New York Times. I draw a comparison with the Hillsborough disaster when The Sun newspaper represented the Liverpool fans as having been drunk and unruly and, in some way, responsible for the appalling disaster that befell them. I remind The New York Times that what followed was a 23 year ban and boycott of The Sun newspaper in Liverpool. Irish people, particularly Irish Americans, should consider their attitude towards The New York Times.

The second point relates to a PRTB rent index published today that again showed rents continue to rise, not just in the capital but all over the country. As I have said on previous occasions, a whole generation of Irish people are unlikely to own their own homes and will live in private rented accommodation for many decades, partly because they will be unable to access a bank loan to enable them to purchase and, partly, because it will take a considerable time to have the social housing necessary for people who will not be able to afford their own homes. The reality is that the private rented sector is not fit for purpose. There are spiralling rents, a chronic shortage of supply, a lack of real security for tenants and substandard accommodation. Yesterday I commended the remarks of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, who said at a Threshold conference earlier in the week that he would bring rent certainty measures to the Cabinet. I call on him, in the light of the best information we currently have which is being published today, to bring it to his Cabinet colleagues next week. This cannot wait. People are losing their homes and becoming homeless because they cannot afford to pay rent increases. I ask for an urgent debate on the issue.