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

We would all agree that the core to the solution to the housing crisis is additional supply. That alone is not the solution but it is the core to it. We are making real progress when it comes to additional supply. This year, between 18,000 and 20,000 new homes and apartments will be built. That is the biggest increase in the number of new homes built this decade and a significant increase on last year and the year before that. Supply is ramping up and new houses and apartments are being built all over the country. It is not ramping up as fast as we would like but it is very much going in the right direction. That means, to put it in human terms, this Christmas there will be 20,000 Irish families sitting around a tree in houses that did not exist this time last year. In those houses, there will be 50,000 or 60,000 people. That is a significant change on this time last year. We want to see supply continue to increase next year. We have set the target of building 25,000 new homes - houses and apartments - next year and adding to our social housing stock by a measure of approximately 10,000.

In terms of the Threshold report which the Deputy raises, I had a chance to listen to Ms Aideen Hayden on the radio this morning. Threshold is a very good organisation that has done much important and valuable work for tenants since its foundation 40 years ago. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, was with Threshold today to launch the report. We will certainly examine the recommendations and reflect on all that Threshold says.

In terms of rent, as the Deputy will be aware, the Government, with the help of his party, has brought in new protections to protect those who are renting. Many people now rent, including nearly one third of people in Dublin, one third of people in my constituency, one third of people in Galway and approximately one quarter of households in the country. It is important, therefore, that we have protections in place for tenants. The protections we have put in place include the 4% rent cap in the rent pressure zones, the requirement that tenants be given adequate notice if they are asked to leave the property they are renting, and an increase of 60% in the budget of the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, to ensure it has the resources it needs to enforce the law.

We will do more. We will bring in new laws to make the rent pressure zones more enforceable by giving the RTB, the power it needs to enforce them. We will introduce a rent register, as recommended by Threshold, so that people have transparency about the rents that are being paid by others in the same area and know what rents are being charged. In addition, we will double the notice to quit period so that if somebody needs to leave their rental property because the owner wants to move back in, needs to carry out substantial renovations, wants to accommodate a family member in it or for one of the other reasons, the notice period will be doubled giving the tenant much more time to find alternative accommodation. That legislation will be at Cabinet on Tuesday and, all things going to plan, will be published thereafter.

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