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

The Taoiseach says the Government is doing everything to increase supply. It is not. I had occasion to visit a fantastic social housing scheme in Cherry Orchard and an affordable scheme in Ballymun. I spoke to the approved housing bodies about their analysis of the current situation. They both said they cannot understand all the blockages, delays and red tape being placed in their way by Government. In fact, some of them speculated and asked me whether the Government has some big announcement or whether there is a rabbit to be pulled from the hat. The fact is, sadly, that there is not. The truth is that when one talks to these approved housing bodies, the story they tell is one of delay and prevarication.

I put to the Taoiseach the idea of a rent freeze. This is a very necessary mechanism to prevent more homelessness. We know that the bulk of people now coming into homelessness, including family homelessness, are coming from the private rental sector. The Government's approach, including its pressure zones, has not worked. We need something that is fit for purpose. I am not inviting the Government to tinker around the edges of anything. On the contrary, I am asking it to take decisive action. I put it to the Taoiseach again that the Government needs to introduce a rent freeze. I hope that what Fr. Peter McVerry described as a conflict of interest that might be on the Government's benches and on those of its colleagues in government in Fianna Fáil will not prevent it from introducing something as necessary as a three-year rent freeze.

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