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

The summer has seen the housing and homelessness emergency go from disaster to calamity. According to the most recent homelessness figures, the number of homeless individuals now stands at nearly 10,000. The number of families accessing emergency accommodation stands at 1,778, which is 349 more than in the same month last year. Scandalously, the number of homeless children has increased again. There are now 3,867 children sleeping in emergency accommodation. Service providers have been reduced to referring families to Garda stations owing to the lack of emergency accommodation. In the course of the summer we witnessed the indignity of a family of seven sleeping in Tallaght Garda station. Rental costs have spiralled out of control; house prices remain above affordable levels and tens of thousands of homes lie vacant across the State. Naturally, people have responded and some have come out to protest against the Government's failures. The response has been a heavy-handed over-reaction to the peaceful occupation of a building in my constituency which had lain empty for three years. Staff of a private security firm arrived in unmarked cars escorted by gardaí to evict a handful of peaceful protestors, which was an absolutely disproportionate response. I ask the Taoiseach to contrast that with the Government's response to the housing crisis which has been underwhelming, under-resourced and inadequate. The Government's flagship housing policy, Rebuilding Ireland, has been in place for two years, but the crisis has deepened. Instead of getting to grips with the emergency, the Government has attacked local authorities and Opposition Deputies and failed to see its own failures. Spin over substance and a refusal to accept that its policies are failing are the hallmarks of the Government's approach. We need a change of direction and a change of policy desperately. That means taking bold and urgent action. I have such an action to recommend to the Taoiseach. Sinn Féin has proposed the introduction of a temporary tax relief for renters, alongside a three-year emergency rent freeze. Existing tenants would have their rent frozen at current levels, while new tenants would have their rent pegged to the RTB's average rent index. This would be a good move and a partial response to the crisis we face. Will the Taoiseach introduce such a rent freeze?

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