Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

A great deal is going on but the problem is getting worse. The simple figure is that there has been a 50% increase in the past year in the number of people sleeping rough. I acknowledge that new centres are opening with 100 beds here and 70 beds there, but 5,000 people remain in emergency accommodation. In the Taoiseach's response, he did not address the fundamental underlying issue as I articulated it, that there is a rental crisis. What is different and unusual about the crisis, particularly in this city at this time, is that people are being forced into homelessness because rental prices are going up so dramatically that they cannot afford to stay in their accommodation. The Government should look at addressing that underlying problem by looking at other mechanisms of trying to restrict the rental increases in order that people are not forced out of their homes and to give renters the rights that we have so far failed to give them. I was amazed when listening to the debate on the Finance Bill in this House about the endless tax breaks and incentives we give to try to get the construction industry to develop. There was no mention of a vacant site levy being introduced ahead of schedule. There was no mention of a site value tax or other measures that might actually push the building industry to build, not just by-----

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