Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Every day families are being made homeless. Thousands of children will sleep in unsuitable emergency accommodation tonight. Home repossessions, rising rents and a shortage of council housing are the causes of family homelessness. Councils not only have housing waiting lists, they now also have waiting lists for emergency accommodation. Families are being forced to sleep rough, overhold on their leases or move in with family and friends. A huge number of those who find themselves in this awful position are at work.

Let me give an example. Máire is a single mother with two children. She works full-time in a low-paid job in retail. Unable to afford child care, her mother minds the children while she is in work. She is not eligible for rent supplement and cannot find a landlord who will take the housing assistance payment. Máire's rent has increased by 20% in the past two years. The crunch came for her when her landlord served her with a €100 rent increase this year. She told him she simply did not have the money and he replied with a notice to quit.

She looked frantically for alternative accommodation but could not find anything affordable. She presented to her local council homeless section but was turned away because all of the hostels and hotels were full. This case is not an isolated one; it happens day after day. A new survey from Co-operative Housing Ireland indicates that 32% of tenants across the State live in fear of losing their homes. In Dublin, 50% of tenants are fearful of becoming homeless.

The only meaningful solution that will allay this fear is to link market rents to the consumer price index - in other words, to provide rent certainty. These families are being made homeless because of the Government's failure to introduce rent certainty. The Minister has urged others to demonstrate leadership. I urge him to demonstrate leadership and tell us when the Government will provide the rent certainty that families like Máire's desperately need.

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