Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not know whether the Taoiseach lives in the real world because if he talks to any student or family he will learn that rents have gone through the roof. That is what the daft.iereport is telling us. There is no point trying to deny or obfuscate it or put a good spin on it.

The Taoiseach's reply indicating lack of knowledge of this report sums it all up. This was a substantive report undertaken by his Government five months ago. It was published in September, not some time ago as the Taoiseach says. Now he has to remind himself of it. He has to look at it again. These were the measures designed to retain and increase the supply of landlords in the market and he does not have a clue about them. That sums up the complacency around this issue of housing.

It is a national emergency. By any yardstick, it is a crisis in our cities and there is no point in trying to dress it up and say we doing this and that. I can go through all of the targets the Government set itself and it has failed to meet all of them. A total of 800 units were to be provided through a repair and lease scheme in 2017, but the number was zero. This was stated in the Government's own report which was published in September and the Taoiseach knows nothing about it. It is put away because there is too much focus on spin all of the time. Let us have some substance and action and achieve some results and outcomes.

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