Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As has been the case for quite some time, if people cannot find a place, they may apply for a top-up to the rent supplement. Until July, when the rent supplement was increased, that was happening on an almost daily basis and 10,000 people were in receipt of top-ups. The number requesting top-ups has since fallen dramatically, indicating that the real problem is a lack of supply. That is the underlying problem, so continuing to increase the rent supplement will drive up rents even further.

What actually needs to be dealt with is the issue of supply. For seven years no social housing was built in this country because the Government was broke and the private sector did not build any houses either because the banks and construction industry were broke. We now have a plan being driven by the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Coveney, to turn that around, to build lots of social housing and to get the private sector building again. That is where the solution lies.

See this speech in context