The Order of Business is No. 1, Private Members' business, Civil Liability (Capping of General Damages) Bill 2019 - Second Stage, to be taken at 12.45 p.m. with the time allocated for the debate not to exceed two hours.

I am sure colleagues will join me in wishing one of our most esteemed members of staff, Mr. Donal Hickey, well in his retirement tomorrow. He has been courteous to all of us in our time here. We wish him a long and happy retirement. He is retiring to Kerry, which is always a great idea. When he gets there, I will be sure to show him the bakery run by the three Moriarty brothers which shut down after 49 years of business. When they retired, they wrote a lovely thank-you note on the window of the bakery in beautiful script and gave a piece of advice to others who seek to retire. The note in question stated that the brothers would have to learn how to spend time without spending money. I hope Donal Hickey masters that art as well.

Under this Government, we have reached the tragic landmark of 10,000 people being homeless . I note the continuous activity masquerading as action on the part of the Minister with responsibility for homelessness. I would call him the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if he was providing any, but we will just have to call it as it is. On his watch, homelessness has become an acceptable face of Government policy. We will be looking for another debate on this issue. It goes with other promises like Fine Gael's pledge to end the trolley crisis. We need to hear what the Minister has to say for himself about this issue.

In the coming weeks, Fianna Fáil will propose an amendment to the Order of Business in respect of the issue of corporate manslaughter. The relevant legislation was first proposed by the Law Reform Commission in 2005 as a result of the hepatitis C scandal in which blood products which were contaminated with hepatitis C were knowingly distributed to women. Thousands of women were infected and hundreds died as a result, yet no one went to prison. The man who knew the blood products were contaminated did nothing about it. I raise this issue again because we have brought our Bill forward again. The officials in the Department of Justice and Equality have refused to meet me, despite the Minister's pledges that they would do so. They have concerns about the Bill. The part they are concerned about is that under which people would actually go to prison as a result of corporate manslaughter. In the North, there were arrests over incidents at a nightclub. We have seen court action resulting from the Hillsborough tragedy in which nearly 100 Liverpool fans died as a result of corporate neglect on the part of the police. The person in charge is facing prosecution and possible conviction. If the hepatitis C scandal happened again, nobody would go to prison because the Government has refused to allow the legislation to move forward. I wish to ask the Leader why that is the case. I suspect it is because many senior officials in a lot of Departments are afraid that at some stage they might face prosecution under the legislation as a result of their inaction.

I concur with the previous speaker's remarks in bidding farewell to Mr. Donal Hickey, one of our senior ushers. He is extremely courteous and professional and has always been pleasant to me throughout my long years of service. He will be missed in this House. Senator Mark Daly notes that he is returning to his native Kerry. If one cannot retire in beautiful west Cork, Kerry is the next best place to go, so I will forgive him for that. I am sure he will be at Croke Park next Sunday, shouting for his native county. I call on Senator Craughwell. I almost addressed him as an officer.

Go raibh míle maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. It would be nice indeed to be promoted to the commissioned ranks. Sadly, that was not an option during my time. It is interesting that the Cathaoirleach mentions them. We frequently discuss issues relating to the Defence Forces in this room. Some work has been done with respect to the retention of commissioned officers. It is not really working, but some effort is being made in that area.

I have been contacted recently by a number of non-commissioned officers, including sergeants, quartermaster sergeants, company sergeants, sergeants major and a barrack quartermaster sergeant. They are all highly experienced and approaching retirement age. Sergeants are retiring at 50 years, some with 20 years' service, and have vast experience that is available to the State. Could the Deputy Leader examine the strategy in place on retention? Is there a strategy on retaining non-commissioned officers, from the rank of corporal upwards, who have vast experience and do not want to retire early or at a young age? Is there a policy in place? I cannot find one. If there is none, could we have one put in place?

The Deputy Leader will know I have been supportive of the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, throughout the homelessness crisis. The figures today are quite shocking. I am sure they are attributable, to a large degree or at least in some cases, to Airbnb. My colleague, Senator Kevin Humphreys, has constantly referred to the Airbnb scandal, which is leaving families homeless while landlords are making a killing. I will let the Senator speak for himself on this in a few minutes. He has been the champion in the House in this area and has brought much pressure to bear right across the Oireachtas on the short-term profiteering that is taking place.

We are told there is a shortage of building capacity in the country. I sit on the Luas in the morning on my way in and count the number of cranes. We are building offices at a phenomenal rate. If one goes to Sandyford today, one will see hoardings all over the place showing offices with 220,000 sq. ft here or 230,000 sq. ft there. If we are able to build offices, for God's sake why are we not able to build homes? Why are we not able to put people into homes? Are there empty office blocks, particularly around the city of Dublin, that could be converted into homes? There is no point in having offices for businesses setting up in this country if there is nowhere for their staff to live, or if the enormous multinationals are renting properties at inflated prices in order to accommodate their staff. It is acceptable in the short term but it will be detrimental to the country in the longer term. Therefore, I ask that the Minister be invited to the House at the earliest possible date to have a discussion on the difference between commercial housing and non-commercial housing. I still support what the Minister is trying to do through Rebuilding Ireland but it is becoming increasingly difficult.