In two and half years, rents in the private sector have increased by an incredible 23%. Renting is more expensive than ever before, without any security in exchange. In a house in Portobello, three single people received notification from their landlord that they would be getting a notice to quit because a family member would be moving into the house. This is a result of the reckless decision to lift the eviction ban. Under this Government, the private rental sector has shrunk every single year for six years. There is no plan or measure to address the consequences of that. No, I am sorry, there is. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, wrote back to these three folks in Portobello to talk about the measures that would be in place, including the council's ability to purchase the home in Portobello - a great use of public money - or perhaps the people might be in a position to purchase the home. I will stop him there because those three single people are certainly not in a position to purchase that home. I wonder what planet this Government is on. We have not turned a corner in housing. It is quite the opposite; we are in a vicious cycle. The private rental sector is only one example of that. We need a new Government and a complete new direction on housing policy that will meet people's needs.

A couple of weeks ago, a match in the North Eastern Football League between Bay FC and a team from Ballyjamesduff was abandoned when, wait for this now, the referee was kung fu kicked by one of the Ballyjamesduff players. The shocking incident was captured on camera and shared widely on social media. It became a talking point for a number of days on sports broadcasts and received extensive press coverage. The fallout from this is that on Sunday night, the Louth branch of the Irish Soccer Referees Society withdrew its services for the foreseeable future. The branch stated that the league has a duty of care towards the officials refereeing the league which is not being met and as referees cannot be assured of their safety, it will not be accepting any appointments in this league until such assurances are given. There will now be mass cancellations of games and major disruptions this weekend and for the future. It is now ten months since the report on abuse of officials previously referred to by Senator Malcolm Byrne was laid before the Houses.

The report was sparked by another referees strike in the North Dublin Schoolboys/Girls League. One of the key recommendations by Ms Mary O'Connor, CEO of the Federation of Irish Sport, is that clubs who have these terrible egregious breaches of discipline should be barred from access to sports capital funding. We need to take that seriously. If leagues, whether it be in soccer, the GAA or any other sport, cannot get their house in order, we need to press this matter. I did so with the departmental officials at the time and they were wishy-washy at best when it came to it. I ask that the report, which was laid before the Houses ten months ago, becomes an item on our agenda. We need to bring in the Minister responsible for sport to discuss this issue because the clear recommendation of barring clubs from funding needs to be pressed because they are not taking it seriously if a referee can be kung fu kicked on a sports pitch in Ireland.

Before calling on the Leader to reply I want to voice my agreement with Senator Byrne regarding the incident with Lee Chin. He is a fine sportsman and a wonderful ambassador. There can be no place for racism in any of our sporting codes. On my own behalf, and I am sure on behalf of the Members, I congratulate our Leader and Jarlath on their wedding next Saturday. We wish them a happy, joyful and wonderful day and life together. Beir bua. Senator Mullen has literally one minute; the bell has saved him.