I am absolutely appalled there is nobody from the media here. This is an incredibly important social issue and I hope it does not go unreported this evening. I am also appalled there is nobody here from Labour or Fine Gael to even stand over such a policy.

Has the Labour Party learned nothing from the electoral hiding it got two weeks ago? It will go into extinction if it tries to carry through this sort of a policy. Housing emerged as one of the biggest issues on the doorsteps, as all of the Deputies here will know. I have sat here all day, following this Bill and intervening in the debate. What we have in front of us is a housing Bill with no houses. Now, the latest thing the Government has put in front of us is that it is going to massage the waiting lists out of existence and massage the figures. As it did with JobBridge and with the unemployment figures, it is now going to put people into a category which suggests they are adequately housed.

I would correct one thing. It is not a counterrevolution; it is just a continuation of what I have seen on the councils for the past 11 years, where housing has been slowly but surely privatised. Dublin City Council built 29 houses last year. This is not new; rather, it is a continuation. Fianna Fáil started it and, now, Fine Gael and Labour are continuing it. Fingal County Council, in my own area, is going to build 25 houses this year when we have up to 10,000 on the housing list.

The only thing that comforts me is that it is not going to work. Where is the Minister of State going to find these private landlords who want to take families? Has she not copped on to the problem that has been going on here for the last few years? There is a rent bubble out there and there is no way that landlords want to take in families when they can get money in the private sector at a much higher rate.

How dare the Government say to the taxpayers that it will shovel all of their money into housing people at inordinate cost with private landlords who have been getting some €400 million from this scheme every year, and it used to be €500 million until the Government implemented its cuts. How dare it continue that policy. The average rent in Dublin 15, as elsewhere, is approximately €1,300 for a family-type house, and €1,400 for anything bigger. The Government would be putting €1,000 a month into housing families in such situations, money it could be using to build homes and then get rent back.

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