Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is hard to know what to say at this stage because it will not be anything new from me or anyone else. I used to joke about single, transferable speeches but, unfortunately, there is an element here of, "Where are we going?"

As Deputy Ellis said, that 16,734 is the officially accepted or classified number for homelessness. Obviously, this does not deal with rough sleepers, children in domestic violence refuge and a huge number of things. It does not deal with those people who are getting by on the basis that they are staying in their friend's front room and moving from one to the other. I have to assume the Minister of State has people coming to him at this moment in time, no more than we do, under severe pressure with notices to quit. He is going to talk about tenure and about how there is a greater level of protections but we do not see it. We are talking about 25% of all private rental tenancies that are registered with the RTB being new tenancies.

We are looking at possibly having up to 60,000 from 1 March. We could be looking at literally 60,000 tenancies every year with a market reset. It is not a normal market; it is an absolutely broken market. I will be honest and say that I was talking to a very small landlord who put up a notice for a small two-bedroom in Dundalk but had to take it down within an hour. There were well over 100 emails, with people offering whatever they could to get a house. There were about 50 phone calls, of which not all could be answered for obvious reasons. There was a huge number of people who are facing notices to quit. We are talking about 5,100 children within that figure I mentioned earlier.

The only people who are happy at the minute are those in IRES REIT. It is looking at a 20% to 25% increase in its profits for rents. I do not see any solutions here. It is like this problem has become so big, that Government is happy enough to just let it lie on the basis that there is an element of apathy and of people who are afraid there is not a solution. We all know there are solutions, and it is about Government investing properly. It is about ensuring there is a steady supply of affordable and social housing. I do not know how the Government can defend this in any way, shape or form.

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