Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I move:

That Dáil Éireann: notes that:

— the State remains in the midst of a housing emergency;

— the Government has chosen to end the emergency ban on evictions on 31st March, 2023;

— the Government, in making this decision, has increased the stress and insecurity experienced by the 750,000 people, including working families, living in private rented accommodation;

— the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has admitted that homelessness will increase once the current eviction ban ends;

— according to the Residential Tenancies Board 7,539 eviction notices were issued from January to September in 2022;

— only a handful of tenant-in-situ purchases were completed in Dublin in the last year;

— emergency homeless accommodation is at breaking point; and

— the Government has no contingency plan in place to deal with the increase in homeless presentations when the current ban on evictions ends; and

calls on the Government to:

— extend the emergency ban on evictions until the end of January 2024;

— expand the tenant-in-situ scheme for both social and affordable cost rental tenants;

— use emergency planning and procurement powers to target vacant and derelict buildings and new building technologies to increase the supply of social and affordable homes above the existing 2023 targets; and

— urgently commence the biggest social and affordable housing programme in the history of the State so that people can access secure, affordable housing to buy and rent.

In ten days’ time, the emergency ban on no-fault evictions will come to an end, which was a decision of the Minister and his Cabinet colleagues. We know from Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, figures released recently that a very large number of families, single people, couples, families with children and pensioners will have notices to quit that will fall due from April. Of course, some of these people will find alternative private rental accommodation, albeit with some difficulty. However, many of these people will be forced to move in with family and friends. In some cases, people will be forced to emigrate because they will be unable to find alternative accommodation. However, a very large number of the men, women and children with eviction notices will seek emergency accommodation. We know that from what has been happening in recent years. According to the local authorities we speak to on a regular basis, they are almost at capacity. In fact, some local authorities have no emergency accommodation available tonight. This means that when people present to their local authorities in April, May and June and no emergency accommodation is available, they will be forced to sleep rough, or if the Tusla guidance from 2018 continues in force, families with children will be referred to Garda stations for a safe place to sleep.

We are going to see levels of homelessness that nobody ever thought was possible. I have to say that the Minister is responsible. He and his Cabinet colleagues made this decision. More importantly, however, the reason we are in this crisis is because the Minister has failed to deliver an adequate supply of social and affordable homes since taking office.

Not only are the Government's targets too low, but year after year it has missed them. The Government has also failed to respond to what has been a shrinking private rental sector over six or seven years, which the Minister spoke loudly about when he was in Opposition and about which he has done nothing since becoming the Minister. The worst decision of all is the decision to end the ban on evictions. Last October I wrote to the Minister and I set out in some detail the measures he could and should have taken. I wrote to the Minister again two weeks ago repeating many of those measures. On both occasions, not only did the Minister ignore the advice that came from Opposition, he also ignored the advice that came from NGOs, from homeless service providers in the public sector, and from other opinion makers. As a consequence, we will have a Government decision that willingly, consciously and knowingly will lead to ever increasing levels of homelessness.

In the exceptionally long-winded and appallingly superficial alternative motion that the Government has tabled today it admits in black and white that this decision is going to see homelessness increase because of a lack of emergency accommodation. The reason is because the Government did not use the breathing space of the last ban on evictions to reduce the flow of people into homelessness, and because the Government did not take our advice on emergency planning and procurement powers to target derelict vacancies and new building technologies to increase social housing supply over and above the Government's own targets. In fact the Government did not even meet those targets. Because of all of those failures and because of the Minster's decision there are people tonight who simply do not know where they are going to go in April, in May and in June.

Probably the most telling aspect of the debate we have had in the last two weeks is when the Minister and his colleagues are asked over and over again a very simple question. What is their advice to those people, the families, single people, and children when they present to the local authority and that local authority has no emergency accommodation? Where do they go? The Minister still has not answered that.

Worse than that, the Government's hastily cobbled together set of proposals launched two weeks ago, and now again the even more hastily cobbled together and less convincing set of propositions here, will do nothing at all for people this side of the autumn, and for many nothing into the winter. The idea that the Minister thinks his housing plan is working, and the idea that he thinks this is a credible response to the highest levels of homelessness in modern history in this State, is an absolute disgrace. The Minister and his colleagues should be ashamed of themselves. As those homeless numbers start to rise come April, it will be the Minister's responsibility and that of the colleagues around him.

I have no hesitation in urging the Government to reverse its decision, to extend the emergency ban on evictions, and crucially to put in place the emergency measures we have been screaming for the Minister to do for almost a year. If the Government fails to do that they will be responsible for increasing levels of homelessness in the time ahead.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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Like many people in Dublin West I was absolutely shocked at the shameful decision to end the eviction ban. The Taoiseach, the Minister of State, Deputy Jack Chambers, and the Minister, Deputy Roderic O'Gorman, in my constituency, all sit around the Cabinet table and are part of the first Government to make a conscious decision to increase the numbers of individuals and families into homelessness. What is more shocking to the people I have spoken to about housing over the past week is the lack of empathy from the Government for those people who will be thrown out of the homes where they live at the moment. People are shocked at the lack of planning despite months and months of the eviction ban being in place, and at the Government's full intention to end this ban at the end of the month. Time and again these people have asked me where are they to go.

I spoke to a woman last week who went to Fingal County Council offices and she was told to go down to the Garda station. Another mother I spoke to yesterday is absolutely distraught at the prospect of going into homelessness in the coming weeks. She said that she is planning to sleep in her car so she can remain close to her home area with its schools and community supports for their three children, and especially for their child with autism. I ask the Minister where are they to go. A father is now temporarily living on a boat and cannot have his children due to the size of the accommodation he is living in. Where is he to go?

We can list off all the horror stories being told to us by citizens in our offices every day. These are real stories and real people who are terrified of what lies ahead. There are thousands more people who dread waking up to that letter, that notice to quit from their landlord. The impact of this on mental health and physical health is beyond horrendous.

The Government has put in place hundreds of temporary rapid-build units throughout the State. There is nothing to stop the Government doing likewise for those people facing eviction in the coming months, which is due to the Government's decision to end the eviction ban. I put it to the Minister that the choices are clear. Reinstate the ban. Put a strategy in place for temporary accommodation or we will see people on the streets, in cars, in tents and in Garda stations. That is not acceptable.

Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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People in north Kildare are contacting my office and they are terrified. They cannot sleep. They are sick to their stomach that once the eviction ban is lifted they will have nowhere to go. In Kildare there are 209 evictions pending yet there are only 44 places available to rent on daft.ie. Across the State there are almost 5,000 evictions pending, and 1,183 places available to rent. Primary school level maths tells us that 209 will not go into 44, and that 5,000 will not go into just over 1,000. The people who contact me are worried sick about their families and worried about telling their children. They feel like failures. I tell them that this is not their fault and that the fault lies fairly and squarely at the feet of this Government. What is the Government telling them? Is it that the private market will look after them, as the Government has expected for the past 12 years? You must be joking. It is not the private market's job to find homes for people. The Government talks about demonising landlords; well, it was ye who set this up by expecting private landlords to do the Government's job to provide homes for people who should be homed by local authorities.

I put it to an tAire that almost 5,000 eviction notices have been issued across the State. This will affect multiples of people. We are talking about tens of thousands of people. If they were affected by an earthquake or a flood we would have international agencies coming here to help them. Maybe we should, because our housing crisis is turning into a humanitarian disaster. Lifting the eviction ban is purely political and ideological. It comes from the Government's politics of private profit first, and people and public service last.

I have asked the Minister what help the Government will give to people who are trying to store the stuff they have around their homes. Will they have to lose that? I have also asked if the Government is going to help people to board their pets. Imagine having tell your child that not only are they going to be homeless but they will have to lose their favourite pet as well. Is the Minister really that indifferent to people's suffering? It is loss on loss and cruelty upon cruelty because of the Government's laissez-fairehousing policy.

There is speculation that Fine Gael took this to their focus groups and that their hard core voters told them "Off with you, we are alright Jack, do not worry we will still vote for you." Be warned, a Aire. Ireland is small country. There are only two or three degrees of separation here. Everybody is going to know somebody affected by this. Eviction resonates with Irish people. We all learned about it in our history books. I appeal to the back benches of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party to find their moral compass: the Cabinet has lost theirs. Members need to vote with the Opposition and keep people in their homes. The Government needs to withdraw its counter motion. The time for that was when the eviction ban was brought in. If it needs the cover of the eviction ban why is it doing that? I ask the Government to withdraw its counter motion.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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A frustration for me over many years was witnessing the policies of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael remove the prospect of home affordability and stability from increasing numbers of Irish workers and families. At the same time we saw representatives from those parties actually claiming to be working for those in need of housing. "I got them that house" was a familiar refrain from Fianna Fáil councillors or Fine Gael Deputies as they approached a front door, never referring to the fact that far from a free house those inside were actually paying rent in direct proportion to their income. There was no mention that those parties were implementing policies that were outsourcing and privatising housing provision that would bring us to the point today where an entire generation is denied the security their parents enjoyed. It was a conscious and deliberate policy to stop local authorities building and buying homes and instead to depend on private operators motivated by profit to address the housing needs of the State.

Following the financial crash, rather than building public homes at a fraction of today's cost, which would have stimulated the economy when it was badly needed and kept thousands of our young people working in Ireland rather than forced to emigrate, the Government rolled out the red carpet for the vultures, the cuckoos and the international speculators to wreak havoc on our communities.

The Government now pays over €1 billion of taxpayers' money every year in subsidies to those private operators for housing people who should be paying rent to the State. All the while, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael representatives continue to play the game of pretending they are actually helping those in need of housing. "We are the party of home ownership" some of them blatantly lied but this week, the lies are exposed.

Anyone who rejects Sinn Féin's motion to extend the eviction ban and anyone who supports the Government's mealy-mouthed amendment is voting for families and individuals in their constituencies to be made homeless. There will be no hiding place ten days from now when a family that receives an eviction notice goes to its Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael representative, its Green Party representative or perhaps even its Independent representative to ask the question, "Where will we go?". When those Deputies do not have an answer for them, they will know the truth - that the dire situation in which they have found themselves is down solely and squarely to the actions of those Deputies this week. All of those backbenchers who intend to vote to end the eviction ban, most of whom could not be bothered to be here for this debate, should be aware that the generation they have denied the prospect of a home is watching. Their parents are watching and the families who will be made homeless because of their decision this week are watching. They will never forget and neither will their children, friends and neighbours and all of those Irish people who value decency, compassion and fairness. They are watching and they are waiting. They are waiting for the chance to respond to those who are willing to make people homeless by kicking them out of this Chamber as soon as that chance arises. There is a chance for Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Green Party and Independent representatives to take a stand for those people who are facing being kicked out of their home with nowhere else to go. That chance arises this week and this week alone because it will be forever recorded in the transcripts of this House who chooses to vote at the behest of the Government and force people out of their homes.

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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Dozens of households across Laois and Offaly are facing eviction in a matter of days. They have ten more nights with a roof over their heads and then the eviction ban will be lifted. Renters are stressed out and frightened. They are terrified of what is in front of them. They have been given no answers and no solutions by this Government as to what they should do or where they should go. Emergency accommodation is stretched to capacity and much of what is left is totally unsuitable.

This Government and its predecessors have failed spectacularly in their housing policies and as a consequence, ordinary people are being punished, forced out of their homes and left with no alternatives. The Government has made a big deal of its decision to expand the tenantin situ scheme but that will not even make a dent in the problem. A total of 135 eviction notices fall due in April in Laois and Offaly - 88 in Laois and 47 in Offaly. The number of families and households receiving eviction notices will increase significantly as the months roll on, as further notices to quit fall due. However, the number of homes that the councils can buy under the tenant in situscheme is minuscule. Laois County Council can buy ten houses under the scheme and the same applies in Offaly. This includes the Government's expanded figures that were given to the local authorities last week. That is what was announced. What happens to the other households that have received notices to quit and what about those who have yet to be notified? This is not a solution; it is a Mickey Mouse scheme.

Extending the eviction ban ensures that almost 12,000 people across this State are spared the ordeal of eviction and the fear of eviction. It would buy the Government time to do the things it has not done to date. Sinn Féin is calling for all remaining vacant local authority homes to be immediately revamped and put back into use and for councils to be given more powers to compulsorily purchase long-vacant homes. We need a minimum of 20,000 social and affordable homes to purchase and rent. We also need an emergency three-year rent freeze and a tax rebate equal to one month's rent for renters. These are solutions, along with modular homes that can be erected quickly.

I appeal to the Minister to change tack. It is disgraceful that more than 140 years after the founding of the Irish National Land League, which fought for fair rent and fixity of tenure, renters in the 21st century, in 2023, still do not have these things. Some of them have only ten more nights with a roof over their heads. We need to do better than this. The Government should do better than this.

Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister should look behind him and around him at the rows of empty seats. Government Ministers and backbenchers are showing utter contempt for thousands of people who face eviction and homelessness in the next ten days. Are they hiding in their offices or in the Dáil bar? They can hide from the debate tonight but they cannot hide from their constituents tomorrow evening if they vote to lift the eviction ban.

Today there is no emergency accommodation in Louth - no hotel rooms, no bed and breakfast accommodation, nothing. A total of 172 people presented as homeless to Louth County Council last month, even before the eviction ban is lifted. Today there are five properties listed on www.daft.ieto rent in Drogheda, the largest town in Ireland. At a minimum, 96 families in Louth face eviction in ten days time. At a minimum, 120 families in Meath face eviction over the next few weeks. I will give the House some examples of the consequences of the Government's action for families. I am dealing with one family comprising two adults and five children. One child has autism and another suffers from anxiety and depression. The parents are petrified at the real prospect of being homeless in a couple of weeks. Where does this family go? Another family is on Louth County Council's housing list and is in receipt of HAP from the council. The family has been served with an eviction notice. The house is technically in County Meath because a part of Drogheda lies in that county. The landlord is willing to sell the property to a local authority. Louth County Council will not agree to a tenant in situpurchase because the house is in County Meath while Meath County Council will not purchase it because the family is on the housing list in County Louth. Where does this family go? Do they go to the Garda station? I came across another case of homelessness today. There are no emergency beds available anywhere in Louth and the homeless department offered €100 to the individual. There is nothing available. Where does that individual go?

The truth is that the Government has no contingency plans and no immediate solutions. The Government allowed the housing crisis and homelessness to build and build over the past decade and its policies are making the situation worse, not better. This Government's housing policies are inflicting utter misery on families and causing stress for thousands of people. To add insult to injury, the Government has now collectively decided to compound that misery while taking no responsibility for its reckless actions. There is no emergency accommodation, no hotel rooms, no bed and breakfast accommodation and no housing to speak of and yet the Government is bulldozing ahead with lifting the eviction ban. There is one pertinent question that no Government representative has answered. Indeed, all of them have refused to answer it to date. Where do these families go, come April?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I move amendment No. 5:

To delete all words after "That Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "notes that:

— the Government agreed on 7th March that the 'winter emergency period' under the Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Act 2022 would come to an end on 31st March, 2023, with deferred tenancy terminations taking effect over a staggered period from 1st April to 18th June, 2023 as planned and legislated for under that Act;

— the Government has used the past several months to increase housing supply for those most in need, and in the last quarter of 2022, approximately 6,000 new social homes were delivered, including almost 5,000 new build social housing homes;

— during the last quarter of 2022, 1,532 local authority homes were refurbished under the Voids Stimulus Programme and restored to use; the voids programme will also be intensified in 2023;

— just prior to and during the period of the moratorium local authorities opened some 500 additional homeless emergency beds and 170 cold weather beds;

— the most effective way to assist renters is to increase supply and accelerate delivery of housing for purchase and for private rental, cost rental and social rental; every effort will continue to be made to prevent people becoming homeless;

— new affordable homes for purchase and cost rental by local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), the Land Development Agency and the 'First Home' scheme are being delivered at scale and a pipeline of delivery for the coming years is established and strengthening;

— measures are being taken to put in place additional accommodation to prevent homelessness, including:

— an increase in the number of social housing acquisitions target to at least 1,500 in 2023, with a further expansion of the target as required;

— an additional 1,000 homes through targeted leasing initiatives in 2023 and 2024; and

— the amendment of the Capital Advance Leasing Facility used by AHBs to assist them in their efforts in delivering social homes;

— to reduce the number of households at risk of homelessness the Government plans to rapidly:

— give tenants the right of first refusal to buy their homes, by requiring a landlord selling a property to first offer it to the tenant on an independent valuation basis for sale;

— expand the 'First Home' scheme to support tenants to purchase under the right of refusal;

— enhance the availability of the Local Authority Home Loan to tenants utilising the right of first refusal;

— work with local authorities and AHBs to develop a cost rental model for tenants at risk of homelessness but not on social housing supports to enable them to continue to rent their home; and

— establish the cost rental scheme on an administrative basis to ensure no eligible household is left behind prior to any required legislation;

— a comprehensive review of the rental sector has commenced that will take into account the significant regulatory changes over the past several years;

— the review aims to put in place a private rental sector which gives long-term certainty to tenants while ensuring that property providers – both small and large scale – are encouraged to provide badly needed rental property for all those who depend on it;

— over the coming months, the Government will work to put together a comprehensive new budgetary package of effective measures for both tenants and landlords, that support renters and providers of accommodation both in respect of short-term measures and the longer-term certainty for renters and property providers;

— increasing social, affordable and private housing supply, for renters and those looking to purchase a home, is key to improving our housing system and eradicating homelessness, with almost 30,000 homes built last year, an increase of 45.2 per cent from 2021 (20,560) and 41.3 per cent from 2019 (21,134), and 5,250 or 21 per cent higher than the Housing for All: A New Housing Plan for Ireland target of 24,600 for 2022;

— the Government will continue to expand the provision of social and cost rental accommodation to ensure that all sectors of our society have available to them rental accommodation that meets their needs;

further notes with regards to increasing social housing:

— a total of 9,183 social homes were delivered in 2021;

— when verified and published in the coming weeks, figures will show more social housing new builds were delivered in 2022 than in any year since 1975; furthermore, in 2020 and 2021 more than €88 million was spent in bringing 6,032 vacant social homes back into use;

— a record €4.5 billion in State housing investment in 2023 will ensure the substantial uplift in supply in 2022 can be maintained and exceeded, with 9,100 direct build social homes and 5,500 affordable homes to be delivered;

— the review of the Capital Advance Leasing Facility funding model which will be formally launched later this month will allow AHBs to deliver social housing in all local authority areas;

— recent adjustments to the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme, including increasing the discretionary base level of HAP, are anticipated to have a positive effect on tenancy sustainability and a corresponding mitigating effect on the Debt Management Process and cessations; and

— the Government will amend the HAP scheme to ensure sustainable tenancies including, as appropriate, secure payments to landlords where the tenant defaults with effect from 1st May, 2023;

acknowledges in relation to increasing the tenant-in-situ acquisitions:

— in light of the challenges in addressing homelessness, combined with continuing exits from the private rental market, the Government will continue to support opportunities for the acquisition of properties to prevent homelessness and will take further targeted measures to increase acquisitions of properties where a landlord is selling the property;

— in April 2022, the Government reinstated the delegated sanction to local authorities in respect of social housing acquisitions; and the reinstatement of delegated sanction has allowed local authorities to respond with more flexibility to secure acquisitions which support a household to exit, or to prevent, homelessness;

— the Government will support local authorities to acquire at least 1,500 social homes in 2023, with a further expansion of that target as required, and the majority of these will be focused on properties where landlords are exiting the market and there is already a social housing tenant in place;

— the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has written to each local authority to instruct them to target acquisitions on HAP or Rental Accommodation Scheme tenants under aNotices to Quit, to develop their own acquisition plan and seek a report on acquisitions in train for 2023 which is due to be received by the end of March;

— the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is setting up an 'acquisition delivery team' to ensure each Local Authority meets its tenant-in-situ purchase targets; and

— a cost rental tenant-in-situ backstop will be applied on an administrative basis from 1 April prior to legislative enactment with a view to supporting households at risk of homelessness.

in relation to increasing affordable housing further acknowledges that:

— 2022 was the first full year of affordable housing delivery in a generation, and supply at scale will be achieved through a mix of new or extended initiatives, including the 'First Home' scheme, local authority-provided affordable purchase schemes, the Help to Buy initiative, and the expanded Local Authority Home Loan;

— Cost Rental housing, a new form of State-backed secure, long-term rental tenure, with rents targeted at a minimum of 25 per cent below open market rates, is being delivered at scale, with hundreds of Cost Rental homes tenanted, and the investment of over €1 billion to support affordability measures and deliver more affordable purchase and cost rental homes in 2023; and

— the Government is developing proposals for a bespoke Cost Rental model which would see a provider avail of the right of first refusal, to allow tenants who have received such a notice and who are at risk of homelessness, but not on social housing supports, continue to reside in the property, and this would involve an option for AHBs and local authorities to purchase the property and to continue to let it with financial support from the Government, and this will be rapidly established on an administrative basis prior to legislation:

in relation to improving viability notes:

— following consultation with stakeholders, the Government is taking steps to address viability in the provision of apartments, including activating uncommenced planning permission by engaging with site owners through the expansion of the Project Tosaigh and the Housing Agency's Croí Cónaithe (Cities) Scheme, which will help to deliver increased supply over the next few years;

— additionally, proposals are being prepared by Government for a new viability measure to activate stalled planning permissions and bring forward Cost Rental at scale for consideration in April;

in relation to reducing vacancy notes:

— the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage recently published the Vacant Homes Action Plan, which outlines progress and details new actions that will be implemented to continue to return as many vacant properties back in to use as possible, increasing the supply of housing available, and revitalising local communities;

— measures already taken by the Government include expanding the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant, funding full-time vacant homes officers in every local authority, exemptions to planning permissions to convert vacant commercial premises to residential use, and enhancing the Fair Deal scheme to incentivise the selling or renting of unused homes;

— measures in the action plan include a €150 million Urban Regeneration Development Fund, for local authorities to acquire vacant or derelict properties and sites for re-use or sale and a new local authority-led programme is being developed to help them buy or compulsory purchase vacant homes in their areas and resell them on the open market;

— the Government is building on the initial success of the Croí Cónaithe (Towns) Fund vacanct property refurbishment scheme and will change the eligibility date for properties to include properties built prior to 2007, with effect from 1st May,2023;

— these steps will include the extension of the Croí Cónaithe (Towns) Fund refurbishment scheme, to include properties which are made available for rent and not just owner occupied from 1st May,2023, grant rates will also be reviewed;

in relation to enhancing Tenants rights notes:

— there is on-going reform and resourcing of the RTB to ensure it is fit for purpose for regulating the rental sector;

— there has been major expansion of tenants' rights including tenancies of indefinite duration and increase in notice to quit periods;

— there has also been an extension of the Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) system to 2024 and a 2 per cent rent cap; and

— the upcoming Residential Tenancies Bill is a further opportunity to strengthen tenants' rights;

supporting the use of new building technologies funding of €94 million has been allocated to pay down local authority loans on legacy indebted sites, which can deliver social housing projects through the use of accelerated delivery models, principally offsite/Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), and by paying down the outstanding loans, the fund will free up these sites for immediate development, with local authorities recouping the cost of repaying loans on 26 separate sites, all of which will be developed using MMC;

in relation to preventing and addressing homelessness notes that:

— the continuing increase in the numbers accessing emergency accommodation throughout the country is a serious concern; and the Government, local authorities and others are making every effort to reduce homelessness;

— while the eviction moratorium slowed down the numbers entering homelessness, it did not prevent it; and additional measures are underway to urgently and substantially scale up housing delivery, including emergency accommodation, affordable housing, cost rental accommodation and social housing;

— the Government is aware of the challenges faced in sourcing emergency accommodation throughout the country, and local authorities are working with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to further increase capacity;

— the homeless emergency accommodation budget for 2023 makes provision for €215 million in funding for homeless services, an increase from €194 million in 2022; and the extra funding for homelessness reflects the priority that this Government is giving to homelessness;

— the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has made it clear that funding and resources are not an obstacle to the urgent efforts required to address homelessness; the Government is committed to ensuring emergency accommodation is provided wherever needed through a range of mechanisms including direct purchasing and leasing;

— the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is currently working with local authorities to bring on stream an additional 2,000 beds in 2023; to date in 2023, almost 200 new beds have opened in the Dublin Region; and the Department is actively working with all local authorities to ensure there is sufficient emergency accommodation available to people presenting as homeless and it is expected that a further 1,000 beds will open in Q2;

— local authorities can avail of commercial accommodation such as hotels and bed and breakfasts to accommodate those seeking emergency homeless accommodation in cases where no other appropriate emergency accommodation is available; and

— to tackle accommodation shortages in the rental market, the Government is strengthening regulatory controls on short-term lets with a ban on the advertising of non-principal private residences in RPZs for short-term letting purposes, where the necessary planning permission is not in place;

with regards to tax measures notes that:

— the Government has introduced a new rent tax credit valued at €500 per renter per year for those taxpayers who are paying for rental accommodation during the years 2022 to 2025;

— if a taxpayer lets a room in his or her home, they may claim a tax exemption in respect of the rental income; the rental income cannot exceed the exemption limit of €14,000; otherwise, the total rental income is taxable;

— the Government will extend the Rent-a-Room scheme disregard for social welfare recipients and extend the disregard into medical card criteria from 1st May, 2023 and allow local authority tenancies to access the scheme;

— the doubling of the cap on deductibility for a landlord's pre-letting expenditure for previously vacant properties to €10,000 per property;

— the Government provided for a new tax deduction (of up to €10,000) for landlords who undertake retrofitting works while the tenant remains in situ;

— reforms of the Fair Deal Scheme reduced disincentives to renting out and selling a home vacated when its owner enters a nursing home including a disregard of 60 per cent (rather than the previous 20 per cent) of any rental income derived from the principal private residence (PPR) and a three year cap on contributions on the sale of a home;

— the Government will further move to eliminate remaining barriers to older people utilising the Fair Deal Scheme who wish to rent out their homes; and

— the Government is committed to the introduction of a meaningful and effective Budgetary package for the rental sector to include both taxation and expenditure measures;

in relation to the planning powers, to help expedite the provision of housing by local authorities, new provisions came into effect from 8th March, 2023 and will provide a temporary exemption from the 'Part 8' planning approval process by elected members for local authority own developments for social and affordable (including cost rental) housing which commence construction before the end of 2024; and

having regard to progress already made, the Housing for All: Action Plan Update commits the Government to reviewing the national housing targets and projections when the full Census 2022 is published later this year; and this will include refreshed targets with subsets for social, affordable and market delivery that reflect need and demand, and a scaling up to ensure optimal levels of sustainable supply over the lifetime of the plan in line with increased capacity in the construction sector".

I will begin by saying that the Government's decision to do what we said we would do, which was to bring the winter eviction ban to an end as planned on a phased basis from 31 March, was not one that we took lightly but we believe it is the correct decision.

We know there are people who are facing significant challenges, including renters who are in receipt of State assistance while waiting for a transfer to a more secure social home, renters in tenancies where their landlord is considering leaving the market and renters who want, more than anything, to buy their own home. This Government is doing and will continue to do everything it can to help these people. At the crux of everything we do is the need to increase the supply of housing. Extending the eviction ban would not do that. If we were to do as Sinn Féin asks and extend the moratorium to the end of January, we would only serve to shrink the number of homes available to rent. If we were to do what the Sinn Féin motion calls for, we would be having this very same debate in the middle of winter and there would be no phasing-out period but rather a hard cliff-edge of evictions in the weeks after Christmas. The Opposition knows this, but it is more interested in politicising the housing crisis than putting forward pragmatic solutions. Sinn Féin knows that its proposition would only serve to make a difficult situation even worse. This motion very clearly shows that Sinn Féin is not against evictions. Rather, it will ensure there are evictions when the situation would be much worse.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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That is rubbish.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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This Government has been honest with people. We introduced the winter moratorium to mitigate pressures people faced over the winter period. We did so in the face of a cost-of-living crisis. We said at the time that we would use the period of the moratorium to ramp up supply. For the information of the Deputies opposite, I will briefly outline the facts of what we did during the period of the moratorium.

In the last quarter of 2022, almost 6,000 new social homes were delivered, including almost 5,000 new build social homes. At the same time, 1,532 local authority homes were refurbished under the voids programme and brought back into use. Just prior to and during the period of the moratorium, local authorities opened 500 additional emergency accommodation beds and 170 cold weather beds. A total of 734 adults and 346 families exited homelessness in the fourth quarter of last year.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Homelessness is still going on.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Data from the RTB shows that 19,049 new tenancies were registered in January and February of this year. In the last three months of 2022 during the winter eviction moratorium, 1,896 HAP tenancies were created. On this point, I want to highlight that the State created on average 630 HAP tenancies during each month last year. That is a direct support for our most vulnerable renters. Almost 60,000 active HAP tenancies are being supported under the scheme, yet, in one fell swoop, Sinn Féin, the main Opposition party, said it would get rid of it.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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No.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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That is not true. That is simply not true.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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What does the party say to those families and those individuals? Those who are saying we did nothing over the period of the moratorium to increase supply are not telling the truth. The facts are the facts.

The Government decision of 7 March set out our next steps. The actions we are taking include the significant protections we are putting in place for renters while also ensuring safeguards to keep small landlords in the market.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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You are evicting people.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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We are increasing the number of social housing acquisitions to at least 1,500 in 2023. Many Deputies have raised the tenant in situ scheme with me and I assure them that I have corresponded with local authorities. I have issued them each with targets and I have requested that they provide regular progress updates to me.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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When?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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They are directed to do that. The figure of 1,500 is the floor and we will do more. We are also adding 1,000 new social homes through targeted leasing initiatives in 2023 and 2024, which are specifically focused on our homeless community. This is another initiative that Sinn Féin is opposed to. We have also taken on board pragmatic and solution-driven proposals from colleagues in the Regional Group to amend the Croí Cónaithe vacancy grant to include homes that were built before 2007 and homes that can be rented to private tenants.

Sinn Féin wants to get rid of the vacant property tax, which is a direct support for homebuyers and homeowners and now renters, and it will not explain why. We will give tenants the first right of refusal to buy their homes by requiring the landlord who is selling a property to offer it first to a tenant for sale on an independent valuation basis. To complement this measure, we will expand the first home equity scheme to support tenants to purchase under the first right of refusal and enhance the availability of the local authority home loan to tenants utilising the first right of refusal. Again, I remind Sinn Féin Members that they also opposed the first home equity scheme.

We have also been working with local authorities and AHBs to develop a cost-rental model on a legislative basis for tenants who are at risk of homelessness but who are not on social housing supports to enable them to continue to rent their home on a cost-rental basis. This will be established on an administrative basis from 1 April to ensure no eligible household is left behind prior to any required legislation.

Cost rental is a game changer in this State and we as a Government have delivered it. One only needs to listen to some of our newest cost-rental tenants and what they have to say about it. Laura, who is a tenant on Enniskerry Road in Stepaside, Dublin in the State’s first purpose-built cost-rental homes said:

“I was struggling to find accommodation. I had to get my Dad to help me because it was so expensive in Dublin. But now with the Cost Rental Scheme it’s a lot more affordable. It’s been a great opportunity to move into an apartment that I can finally afford, for me and my two girls.”

I have already approved more than €90 million for AHBs to deliver more than 1,000 cost rental homes across nine local authorities. Only last week, the LDA announced another 200 cost-rental homes, 95 of which are in Parklands, Citywest. They will have rents of €1,350 for three-bedroom homes, which is a 55% discount on market rates. This is what this Government wants for renters: safe, secure and affordable rents.

Our introduction of cost rental complements the other steps we have taken through Housing for All to bring affordability to housing. Every independent survey shows that renters want to own their own home. To that end, we have brought forward the game changer, the first home scheme, which has seen more than 3,340 registrations and more than 1,200 approvals issued to date. These are 1,200 families who are able to buy their own home because of this Government action.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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What about the families who are homeless?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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We have expanded the help-to-buy scheme to €30,000 for first-time buyers and we have introduced emergency powers, as Members will know, to accelerate the delivery of housing, a measure which, unsurprisingly, Sinn Féin did not support at the time we brought it forward.

I, like many Deputies across the House, have spoken to tenants over the past two weeks. They ask me what help is available to them and, unlike some of the Deputies opposite, I do not try to scare them by speaking of a tsunami of homelessness or of a deluge of people sleeping on the streets.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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We do not have to.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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This is the same incendiary language Sinn Féin Members used when the eviction ban during the pandemic came to an end. Instead, myself and my Government colleagues outline the supports available to them.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Does the Minister really?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I speak to them about HAP, RAS, rent supplement and purchase for tenants in situ. I encourage them to speak to their local authorities about their situation. I inform them of the various schemes-----

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There are 3,000 children in emergency accommodation.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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-----the Government has in place to help people to buy their own home, all of which Sinn Féin opposed, including the first home and the help-to-buy schemes. It even opposed the vacancy grant. I inform them of cost rental, the new form of tenure in Ireland where tenants-----

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Can the Minister inform them of where they should go when they lose their home?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

-----are in place now paying rents that are not driven by the market or profits.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

What about individual cases?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I tell them we are doing everything we can to ensure that no person ends up homeless.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

No, the Minister does do not.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister is ensuring that they are homeless. Well done.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

If there was any doubt that the Deputies opposite are using the current challenges for their own political benefit-----

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister is shameless.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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-----we only need to look at the misinformation they are spinning around the tenantin situ scheme, most notably, Deputy Ó Broin two weeks ago. They continue to cite Dublin City Council only purchasing seven homes under the scheme. They use that figure over and over, despite the council explaining clearly that it is examining a further 382 for purchase right now.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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They have not bought them yet.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Come on.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Please.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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They not have bought them yet.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputies know as well as that when purchasing a home, the buyer goes through conveyancing-----

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Those are the facts.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

-----but they will use the figure of seven and they know it is not true.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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It is true.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

They know this-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister is using Dublin City Council's figures.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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-----but they are either confused or happy to mislead, and I believe it is the latter.

On the wider picture about supply - and the Deputies did not like this either - in 2022, 30,000 homes were completed, which was up 45.2% on the previous year.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister missed his social and affordable housing targets for the third year in a row.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In 2022, we exceeded the Housing for All target by 5,251.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister cannot meet a single target that he sets.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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In January of this year, figures indicate the construction of more than 2,100 residential homes. This is the highest number of commencement notices received in the month of January.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

And yet homelessness rises, rents rise and house prices rise.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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There were more than 25,000 first-time buyers and more than 1,200 approvals under the first home scheme.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Come on, Minister, get your head out of the sand.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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What will Deputy Ó Broin do?

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Nobody heckled the Deputy.

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Sinn Féin has had its chance.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Stop.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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What will Deputy Ó Broin do? He will say we are spending €4 billion per year on delivering on social and affordable housing-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The Government did not spend €4 billion in the last year on houses. Ask the Minister for Finance. He knows the Minister did not spend it.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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That is much more than the €2.8 billion that Sinn Féin put forward in its cobbled together plan.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister could not even spend his own capital budget three years in a row.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy believes he can deliver more HAP homes with less money; simply, he cannot.

All of us in this House, whether in government or opposition and whether some like it or not, have a responsibility to help resolve it, not to capitalise on it,

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Where are they going to go?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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-----not to manipulate it, not to sow division----

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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You cannot make them homeless, as the Government is planning to do in ten days. The Minister for homelessness; that is who you are.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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-----not to delay or use any tactic to avoid supporting legislation, like they did just before Christmas-----

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Never in the history of the State before.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Where are they going to go?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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-----that would fast-track delivery of the social homes. That is what all of us in Government want. That is what Government is doing.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister is in charge and he is making a conscious decision. He has been in charge for two and a half years and he is making it worse.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Unbelievable. Shameful.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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It will be worse in April, May and June for him and his colleagues.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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There is no hiding place anymore. That was disgraceful.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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An Teachta Gould ar dtús báire agus An Teachta Kenny.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister just asked what Deputy Ó Broin would do. He would not make thousands of people homeless is what he would do.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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Deputy McDonald would not make thousands of people homeless. Whatever about the Taoiseach and Fine Gael, whom we know only care about big business, big landlords and big speculators, where are the Fianna Fáil backbenchers who care to talk about supporting the people?

I went on local radio in Cork. No member of this Government will come on the radio with me or with any member of Sinn Féin to debate this issue. They are running for the hills. They are hiding. They will not stand up and be counted. Any one who supports this Government's lifting on the ban on evictions tomorrow night is betraying people. That is what this is: a betrayal of ordinary, vulnerable people.

I know a married woman with one child who is going through chemotherapy treatment and who is going to be evicted by the Minister. Let us call a spade a spade. I know another lady who I told the Taoiseach about today who has stage four COPD and she is on constant oxygen. The Minister will evict her next month. This is what the Government is doing.

Do not tell us about all the different schemes the Government is running. Six months ago the Government should have done its job but it did not do so. We are suggesting the extension of the eviction ban until the end of January 2024. The Government should do its job. We will work with the Minister and with the Government.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Sinn Féin votes against everything.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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How would the Government know? I come from Knocknaheeny in Cork, a working-class area, and I am proud of where I come from. I am talking to people every day who will become homeless. I had a speech prepared for this debate but I do not need to use it because I know people who will be homeless next month who are coming to me and begging for help. I am here today to stand up for these people because we always knew that Fine Gael did not give a damn about them. However, Deputy Michael McGrath is a Minister from Cork. Shame on Fianna Fáil and every one of its backbenchers for backing Fine Gael and selling out ordinary people.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister said in his speech that we do not support any of his measures. The reason we do not is that none of the other measures he has introduced has worked. We would not be where we are today if they had. That is the reality and he has to face that fact. The vast majority of people recognise that what the Government is doing is totally obnoxious and ridiculous. Nobody can believe what the Government has done in circumstances where so many people are facing eviction and looking down the barrel of a gun where they do not know where to go.

The following question has been asked umpteen times: where are these people going to go? There is no emergency accommodation and no prospect of them being able to find alternative accommodation, and there are no houses to rent. The Government has done nothing to make this system work and we have a broken housing system. I spoke to a lady earlier this week who told me she received an eviction notice before the ban came in, which will now be come into force. She is in an outrageous situation. She asked me to phone her landlord and I spoke to him. He is 67 years of age, he bought the house during the last boom, for many years it was in negative equity and now that the value of the house has gone up, he has decided he needs to sell it because he wants to retire, his wife is ill and he needs the money for operations and health treatment she will need. He is in a situation where he needs to sell the house and his tenant is in a situation where she will have nowhere to go. She has no chance, hope or possibility and all the Minister says is that if we do not do something about this, we will have fewer landlords in the market. The reason landlords are getting out of the market is that prices are high. It has nothing to do with the eviction ban; the Minister knows that and everyone knows that.

The Government needs to cop on and realise that decent and ordinary people out there need a chance. The chance they need is the breathing space of keeping this ban in place long enough to do what needs to be done and what the Government should have done when the previous ban came in, that is, provide emergency accommodation and get the councils in motion to buy these houses, because they are not buying them. The Minister has talked about the tenant in situscheme but it has not worked and no local authority has done what it is supposed to do under that scheme. We are appealing to the Minister and the backbenchers in government to support the motion and discard the Government amendment. The reality is that ordinary people out there are depending on this Government to do the right thing for once, and this is an opportunity to do that. We are appealing to the Minister to turn this around. The Government will rue the day if it goes through with this.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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The core problem is the failure of successive Governments to deliver an adequate supply of social and affordable homes. We can all agree that the housing crisis is devastating lives across the State as people cannot afford sky-high rents or find suitable accommodation. That is because of the failure of successive Governments to take steps to deal with the crisis. That is the situation we are in.

The point of the eviction ban was to buy time to increase the supply of social and affordable housing but that time was wasted. The Government says the local authorities are free to buy existing rental accommodation to keep people in their homes but that sounds a lot easier than it is. I know of one couple who are receiving HAP from South Dublin County Council but who are living in County Kildare because they had to find somewhere affordable to live. Their landlord wants to sell to the council but what does that mean for the couple involved? South Dublin County Council is unlikely to buy a property outside its area so the best-case scenario is that the property might go to someone on the Kildare housing list and the renting couple will lose out and face homelessness. Another family I know are on the Dublin City Council housing list and are living in south Dublin and they face the same problem.

These gaps and blurred lines are catching people out all over the State as families are forced to find what accommodation they can wherever they can. The tenant in situscheme has the potential to increase our social housing stock, while limiting evictions into homelessness, but we need to ensure that there is a robust system in place that works and that works for tenants. How long does it take for a council to buy a rental property? I know that in my local area it can take months, if not years, and private landlords do not want to hear that and do not want to wait that long. Will councils be resourced, not just to buy potential properties that become available, but to be able to inspect and clear a purchase in the minimum time possible? Otherwise, more and more properties will be snapped up privately by vultures and more and more families will be out on the street.

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I have been listening to the Minister and other Government Deputies and Ministers on the radio and television during the week trying to defend the indefensible action of not extending this eviction ban. They are far disconnected from the reality of what it is like to be homeless. Do any of them know what it is like to be homeless and to experience that trauma? Do they know what it is like to not have a roof over your head or a place to call home? I know what it is like and it was through no fault of my own. The Minister talks about Sinn Féin not defending landlords but I had a really good and responsible landlord. My landlord was living somewhere else and his rent went up through no fault of his own and he had to sell the property I was living in. He gave me the appropriate notice to quit - he was a good landlord - and that gave me the time to go and start looking for accommodation somewhere else. I joined the hundreds of people who were at viewings. I was lucky that I did not have to bring my children with me because I co-parent but I saw families bringing their children into these homes, hoping that they would be the one lucky family that was chosen to rent that accommodation. It is horrific to ever see anything like that. I was working. I am one of these people who gets up early in the morning and I still found myself in this situation. I was a good tenant and I had a good landlord.

I only spoke about this for the first time a couple of years ago because I felt shame. That is not my shame but it is shame on the policies that the Minister and the Government have inflicted on people. Anybody who is here today or who is listening to this who feels the shame of becoming homeless because of the Government's decision, that is not their shame but it is the shame of the Government and the Government has to own that shame. It is really difficult as somebody who co-parents - and I am speaking about myself on this issue - to maintain a relationship with your children when you are going through that. There will be loads of single fathers like myself who would have been in that situation, who may find themselves in emergency accommodation like I did and who may find themselves having to go sofa-surfing. Let me tell the Minister what sofa-surfing is; it is not an ideal place. Sofa-surfing makes you feel like you are imposing on people, like you are in the way and like you are getting charity off people. That is the reality of it and you are trying to put down roots for your children at the same time.

The Minister, the Government backbenchers and the Independent Deputies to my right have a chance to vote the right way tomorrow. I invite them to take that chance because the Dáil record will be there forever and people will not forgive them.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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On behalf of Labour, I support the motion and commend Deputy Ó Broin and his colleagues for bringing it forward. It represents a sensible and compassionate approach to the growing crisis and the impending cliff edge that so many families and renters are facing. I cannot support, nor can my Labour colleagues, the Government amendment. I urge Government and the Minister to recognise the reasonable nature of the Sinn Féin motion and to support an extension of the eviction ban. I have read the Government amendment and on careful reading I am even more puzzled as to why we are here. The following sentence jumps out at me from the Government's amendment:

— To reduce the number of households at risk of homelessness Government plans to rapidly:

— give tenants the ‘First Right of Refusal’...

— expand the “First Home scheme”...

Why did the Government not plan this rapidly five or six months ago?

Why did the Government not put these measures in place while the existing ban was in effect? Why did it not use the breathing space that was provided? All of us, Government and Opposition, acknowledged there were two purposes to be served by this temporary no-fault eviction ban when it was first introduced. The first purpose was to give breathing space to families and renters to ensure they would not face eviction over the winter period. The second was to give the Government breathing space to put in place necessary measures to create an additional supply of homes, to ensure families who would be evicted once the ban was lifted would have somewhere to go and an alternative place to call home. What has not happened in the last five or six months is the implementation of those rapid plans the Government is now proposing.

Families facing a cliff edge from 1 April have no safety net in place. They only have these proposals; I do not even think we can call them assurances. They have the plans the Government tells us it is going to put in place rapidly but there will be nothing there from 1 April. We are all hearing this from families and individuals in our constituencies. I know the Minister is hearing it. The homelessness agencies are hearing it and local authorities are hearing it. There is no emergency accommodation available. People facing eviction from 1 April do not know where they are going to go. That is a serious crisis. We are all hearing about the distress and devastation. People have told devastating stories but behind each story is an individual or a family. I am thinking of the young mother in my constituency who is distraught at the prospect of moving her children out of school because she cannot find an affordable place to rent in her own community once her eviction notice takes effect. I am thinking of the man in his mid-60s who asked me where he was going to get a mortgage. He is facing eviction. I am thinking of the elderly brothers who have been renting the same place for decades and their landlord now wishes to sell. They have nowhere to go.

In my constituency of Dublin Bay South, 44% of households are in private rental accommodation. It is the highest rate in the whole State. There is nowhere to rent that is affordable. There is nowhere to rent. Out on the street earlier, I met somebody who told me they have been desperately looking for somewhere to rent that is in any way affordable in their own community. They cannot do it. They would have to change jobs or move out of Dublin. This is having a knock-on effect, as Deputy Ó Ríordáin pointed out, on schools. They cannot keep teachers or pupils as families are being forced to move out of Dublin because of unaffordable rents. It is not just Dublin. We are hearing about towns and villages around the country where there is no supply of accommodation available.

It is against this backdrop that the Government took what appears to have been an unplanned decision to lift the eviction ban a number of weeks ago. I say "unplanned" because all the indications that I and other Opposition Members were given by the Taoiseach over recent months were that the Government was taking legal advice and seriously considering the extension of the eviction ban. We put down a parliamentary question about why the eviction ban was initially planned to end on 31 March. I was told by the Department that "regard was had to the meteorological winter period". The evidence for the duration of the plan in the first place referred to weather conditions, to the winter, and reference was made to the French winter eviction ban.

My colleague, Deputy Duncan Smith, asked the Minister just ten days ago if any modelling had been done by the Government towards the end of the eviction ban period on the impact lifting the ban would have. Apparently there was no modelling done on the impact on those renting or, indeed, on landlords. I listened carefully to the Minister's speech. He said that one of the reasons he took the decision to lift the ban was that if it were extended, he believed it would lead to a reduction in the supply of private rental accommodation. There is no evidence for that. We have heard anecdotally from landlords who wish to leave but what measures is the Government putting in place to incentivise landlords to stay, if that is indeed a key concern? Again, there is a lack of evidence and planning and a lack of contingency and devastation and distress is being caused as a result. An extension could have bought further precious time for the Government to take up those rapid plans and put them into effect so those facing eviction would at least have some comfort in seeing that measures had been put in place.

One of the measures that I have been raising with the Minister for many months now is the tenant in situscheme. It is welcome that the Government plans to ramp that up but we are entitled to be a little sceptical about it, given how little effect the scheme has had to date despite the Minister's assurances that he has been requiring local authorities to implement it. He mentioned the figure of seven being cited. I have the response here from 6 March to our Labour Party councillor Jane Horgan-Jones, who asked the chief executive of Dublin City Council how many acquisitions had been made and was told that the total number of tenants in situhomes closed in January and February of this year was seven.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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That is the number closed.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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The Minister is right that there are 173 in the pipeline - that is also in the answer - but only seven have been purchased. I also hear from landlords who tell me they are trying to engage with local authorities, because they want to sell to a local authority to keep the family renting from them out of homelessness, and the local authorities are not engaging. I hear of other problems with the tenant in situscheme that have to be resolved. The Mercy Law Resource Centre has asked me what provision is being made within the scheme for tenants who are renting a HAP property in one local authority area but are receiving HAP from, and therefore on the social housing transfer list with, a different local authority. These are the sorts of practical problems that could and should have been resolved in the duration of the winter eviction ban. Contingencies should have been put in place by the Government to ensure there was no cliff edge for families who are now facing the devastating prospect of an insecure home or eviction from 1 April onwards. It is unconscionable that these sorts of measures, these rapid plans we are now hearing about, were not put in place earlier.

I put to the Taoiseach earlier that on 9 February the Labour Party tabled a motion, which the Government rejected, proposing to extend the eviction ban and put in place eight emergency measures that would have resulted in an increase in supply. The Government opposed that and it is now refusing to accept this motion to extend the ban in these circumstances of devastation for so many families and households. We have put forward a further constructive proposal, which I wrote to the Taoiseach about last week and put to him again this morning. We have brought forward a Bill that would provide for a facility to extend the eviction ban until there is an evidence base for its lifting, that is, until there is a drop in homelessness figures for four consecutive months. I understand the Taoiseach is not accepting that Bill even though it is a constructive proposal.

We are going to have no option but to put down a motion of no confidence in the Government next week. It is not an action we take lightly. It is something we take very seriously. We are conscious that it is a very serious thing to do but we are in a situation where a decision has been made by the Government, apparently at very short notice and against what had previously been indicated, which is going to have devastating consequences for families and households around the country, in every constituency. It is being done without any contingency and with an admission from the Government in this very lengthy amendment to the motion that a series of rapidly planned measures do indeed need to be taken to keep families out of homelessness. These are measures that should and could have been taken months ago but because they were not, and because so many individuals and families are now facing this cliff edge, we are going to be left with no choice but to put down a motion of no confidence next week.

I hope I am wrong. I hope the Government will change its decision. I hope it will support this Opposition motion, which has widespread support across this side of the House and from some members of the Government too, it would seem. I hope the Government will do that because the consequences of the decision are so clearly spelled out. I am thinking of the RTB figures we have seen since the Government took this decision showing nearly 5,000 notices to quit in the third quarter of last year alone. We are seeing real and clear evidence of this cliff edge and the devastation that is now likely to be faced by so many individuals and families. We, as Opposition legislators, cannot stand over that. I am appealing to the Minister one last time to support this motion, as we are doing tonight.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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I thank Deputy Ó Broin for tabling this motion. The Social Democrats will be supporting it. At this stage, I want to appeal to Government backbenchers. It is not too late for them to change their mind on this, do the right thing and vote in favour of this motion. In particular, the Green Deputies should show some backbone on this matter. I know there are no Green Deputies in the Chamber at present but they have a role in this. I do not believe that when any of them stood for election they were running on the basis of supporting measures that would increase homelessness even further when it is at record levels. Indeed, the Minister has said that lifting the eviction ban is likely to increase homelessness even further. That is quite an exceptional situation for a Minister responsible for housing to be in by supporting a measure that will increase homelessness at a time of record homelessness.

In terms of homelessness itself, we have a situation where there is severe overcrowding in homeless emergency accommodation. We have dehumanising conditions in several of the providers of emergency accommodation, a matter I have raised with the Minister several times. Emergency accommodation can have a huge impact on a child's development. If a toddler does not have enough room in emergency accommodation to get around, it can affect the toddler's ability to learn how to crawl. It has massive impacts on people and on children in particular. The Government does not have credibility on this in terms of its plans and the proposals put forward. The Government has not given a cohesive answer to the question of where people are going to go.

When the decision had been made, the Taoiseach, when he was defending it in the Dáil, actually said it may not be the right decision. There seems to be a complete lack of conviction in his comments on this. It is almost a shrug-the-shoulders attitude to what will people do, that they will find something or somewhere and will not all end up homeless. This seems to be the Government defence; that they will not all end up homeless. Is that where we are at in terms of this Government making decisions and their impacts on people's lives? Not everyone will end up in homeless emergency accommodation; some people will end up shoved into overcrowded boxrooms with their families and that is somehow going to be okay. All that is really being looked for here is simply for us to have conditions for renters that are similar to most other European countries. We are in the unique position now, after the Government made its decision on the eviction ban, of having some of the highest rents in Europe and the lowest levels of security for renters. Why is it in most other European countries that if you pay your rent, you cannot be evicted? What is so wrong with that? What would be wrong with that? Why will the Government not do that? It is not a radical thing; it is what is done in most European countries. In fact that is the situation in countries with much larger rental sectors than ours. If renters pay their rent, they cannot be evicted. It is considered their home. People do their end of the bargain and in return, they cannot be evicted from their homes. What is wrong with that? Why is the Government opposed to that? What will it not bring this in?

I asked the Taoiseach earlier today if he had read the comments on uplift.iefrom renters all across Ireland who are absolutely sick with worry as to how this decision will affect them. These are people who are facing eviction. He did not answer my question. Has the Minister read those comments on uplift.ie? If not, will he read them? I will read a few of them. Áine from Dublin writes:

We're an older couple and will be evicted in 2024 due to our home being sold. We've been on the housing list for 14 years.

Rebecca from Cork writes:

My husband and I were just months away from finally having our 10% deposit after 8 years [of saving]. Our landlord is selling up and we earn too much for emergency accommodation so we are going to end up using our deposit to pay for hotels.

Ana from Dublin says she has been living in her home for over 13 years and is at high risk of eviction. The rent she has paid over this time would have bought her a house. She says she cannot believe she will be homeless and that she has been working fulltime since she was a teenager. Sharon from Donegal says that on 1 May, "my rent here in Letterkenny goes up 54%." She says:

"That's not a typo. I honestly don't know how I'm going to make up the difference... Very scary rental times [to be renting] here in Donegal.. [It is] not just a city problem.

Lucy from Kilkenny says:

My boyfriend and I are being evicted after renting for a year and a half... [Working from home] is not available for me so [my boyfriend will have to] go back to his hometown while I crash in a friend's [house] I'm angry someone can upend my life like this... I've worked so hard and have ended up back at square one... no one seems to care beyond a shrug and "well it's their property to sell".

Gerard from Dublin says they are at constant risk of eviction:

You cannot plan beyond the lease length. You cannot start a family. That is Ireland.

Jenny from Galway writes:

I am 20 years renting, turned down for mortgages, children reared in a house that never felt our home, constant nagging fear of losing it. Nowhere else to go.

Stephen from Dublin is a 36-year-old who faces eviction in three months after five years at the same address. As a result, his mental health, relationship and future are all in jeopardy and he has nowhere to go. He writes that the Government is not even applying a short-term band-aid over the gaping wound but is pouring salt in it, and that it will be a stain on its legacy forever. Shame on them, he says.

I could go on and on.

Regarding the tenant in situscheme, before the decision to lift this eviction ban was announced the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage told us in the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage that there would be 1,500 tenant in situpurchases this year. That was not a new announcement that came with the scheme. The Minister had already made that announcement in the housing committee. Then, because there did not seem to be a plan around this, it seemed to be dressed up as some sort of a new announcement. However, it had already been announced. Why at this stage, having had the eviction ban and the tenant in situscheme in place for most of last year, is the scheme still not properly bedded in? Why is it not running on a firm basis? Why do we have a situation where landlords and tenants who want the tenant in situscheme to be availed of, still do not know where to go or who to contact? Why is the Department saying only now that there will be people for them to contact in local authorities and that this will be put in place? Why are we all being contacted by landlords who need and want to sell, do not want to evict their tenants and are finding it very hard to get in contact with people and get buy-in from local authorities on the tenant in situscheme? Why is that still happening?

Why was the Local Government Management Agency, the County and City Management Association, CCMA, before the housing committee today telling us that the tenant in situscheme is being operated in a different way in different parts of the country? That is exactly what it said. Different standards apply in different local authorities. This is exactly what the local authorities' managers association is saying is happening. There is a massive gap between what the Minister maybe thinks is happening and what is happening on the ground. Is he saying the CCMA was giving inaccurate information to the housing committee? I do not think the Minister is saying that about the chief executives of local authorities around this country. That is what they said. Their representative association said it will not apply the tenant in situscheme to some tenants who qualify because of moral hazard, this idea that it would be unfair to lift one family out of homelessness simply because someone higher up on a list is not in that same situation of getting evicted from a private rental tenancy. They are still talking about that. Why has the Minister not given them very strong, clear direction on this about applying consistent standards across the country?

Why, after the announcement today about this expanded tenant in situscheme, are we still just talking about a minimum of 15,000 purchases? Where are the bigger targets in this? Why have the higher targets broken down by local authority area not been issued? When will the Minister do this? How is it that in all this time the tenant in situscheme, the very flagship scheme the Department has in place, is still not properly bedded in or worked out?

Finally, when we look at the history of this country, massive resources were put in during the 20th century through the Irish Land Commission and also through social housing and affordable purchase homes. Massive State resources were put in to ensure that Irish people would not have to face eviction and be thrown out of their homes. Huge resources were put into doing that by us as a collective society and State and yet we find ourselves back in a situation of massive insecurity and where eviction is effectively being endorsed as Government policy through this decision.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I will be sharing time with Deputy Boyd Barrett and possibly Deputy Barry if he turns up.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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He is running late.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I start by saying something everybody in this House knows. The 1916 Proclamation promised "to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all of the children of the nation equally". The Proclamation refers to "all of the children" but Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Green Party and some Independents seem confused. The Proclamation did not say cherish all of the landlords of the nation equally. We are hearing more and more demands to stop demonising landlords, to give them more tax breaks to halt their exodus, while at the same time here we are debating the inevitable cruelty of putting thousands of people onto the streets in the midst of the greatest housing crisis in the history of this nation.

To listen to some people here, one would think that incentivising landlords was the issue and not the possibility of children turning up at Garda stations with no homes to go to and no roofs over their heads.

We are asking only one thing tonight. It is not how many more schemes we should try to develop to lure landlords, developers, builders or vulture funds into our market and not what tax breaks we should try this time for those who are already financially comfortable enough to consider staying in the rental business and making more money. We are asking only one thing, which is whether we should put thousands of people out on the streets starting from 1 April. If the Minister thinks the answer to that is "Yes", then shame on him, shame on his party and shame on the Government and political philosophy that drives it, which thinks evictions are an answer. We are told that an eviction ban will not solve the problem and that we cannot build houses overnight by these two parties which have governed this State for the last 100 years. Try telling that to people like the 100 tenants in Tathony House, some of whom are children, who constantly meet Dublin City Council's management about their issue and are fobbed off, suspended and given no commitment about the buying of that property so that they can stay as tenants in situ. That goes on throughout this country. Clarity is needed for tenants.

Let us be clear that by lifting this ban, the Government will have abdicated its right to govern and rule. It will have put a nail in the coffin of the two Civil War parties. It will have declared to the people of this country that the rights of property, landlords, investment trusts and financiers trump the rights of children to a home and a roof over their head. It will have revealed for all to see that its political philosophy is the inheritor of the political philosophy of Tories and Whigs who evicted Irish peasantry in the 1870s, with the same belief that the rights of landlords and property were paramount. Just as those evictions gave birth to the Land League, I hope the Government's callousness, shown today, will give birth to a fighting tenants' movement. I urge all those faced with eviction to stay put and fight. I urge everybody who abhors this Government's policy to get outside this House at 1 o'clock on 1 April, the day of fools, in this case the fools of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion. It is already clear that the Government has no respect whatsoever for any decision that this House might make to maintain an eviction ban as we in the Opposition wish to do because it has already ignored a Bill that was passed four weeks ago by People Before Profit, calling for the maintenance of the eviction ban for as long as the housing emergency is with us. That has been completely ignored and will no doubt be buried by the Government in the same way that it wants to bury this motion.

No matter how much the Minister tries to spin this, the cold, hard, cruel truth of what he is doing is that he is making a decision to allow thousands of families, individuals and, worst of all, children, to end up homeless when there is nowhere for them to go. There is no social housing, affordable rental accommodation, affordable accommodation to purchase or emergency accommodation. Even the horror of ending up in emergency accommodation, which is too awful to comprehend and is terrifying for people, is not given as an assurance. That is how bad things are. The Minister says we are scaremongering when we say there will be an avalanche. Has the Minister not noticed that we have the highest number of people in emergency accommodation ever seen in this State? If that is not an avalanche of homelessness, I do not know what is. Thousands of notices to quit are looming and as soon as the ban is lifted, those people are going to end up homeless or in crisis in the vast majority of cases. That is the cold, hard truth.

People have no choice now but to get out on the streets because the Government does not really care what happens with any votes in here. It does not really care what happens to the people who end up homeless. When a Government treats people like that, exactly as the landlords under British rule treated Irish people, which contributed very substantially to revolution in this country, it is time for people to get on the streets and fight back against this Government's cruel and callous disregard for the most basic thing which people should feel entitled to, namely, a secure place to live. They should not have their children facing the fear, anxiety and trauma of being made homeless and not even having a hostel to go to. That is what we are facing.

The Minister says we have all these mitigating schemes. We were the people who asked the Government to bring in a tenant in situscheme. I will give a list of some of the excuses for why these purchases are not happening. They are not happening if people are over-housed, which is when there are too many rooms in the house for the number of people. They are not happening when people are under-housed, where houses are overcrowded, because the State then says it could not possibly buy that house. It says it cannot possibly buy a house if people are in a housing assistance payment tenancy in a different constituency from the one where they are on the housing list. It could not buy a house if it is too expensive either or if people are over the social housing income threshold. People might go for a local authority home loan but be told they are in their late 50s, that houses are €300,000 or €400,000 in the area, and since they are 57 or 58, the most they will be given in a loan is €70,000 or €80,000. That is not much help. None of the schemes to mitigate against the cruel decision the Minister has now made will offer solutions to people who are facing the sword of homelessness coming down on their heads. Shame on the Minister. People should get out on the streets to give their answer to what he is doing tonight.

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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From time to time, a Government will make a decision so cruel and wrong that it will be remembered for many years to come. The decision of the Cumann na nGaedheal Government and its Minister for Finance, Ernest Blythe, to cut a shilling from the old age pension in the 1920s was one such decision. Another was the attempt by a Fine Gael-led Government and its Minister for Finance, John Bruton, to put VAT on the shoes of little children back in the 1980s. No one can foresee the future but I strongly suspect that the decision to end the ban on evictions at a time when 3,000 notices to quit are outstanding and more than half the local authorities in the State have no emergency accommodation to spare will be remembered with disgust for years to come. This is a shameful decision by a shameless Government. The shameful decision must be reversed and the shameless Government must be shown the door. The French say that what the parliament does, the streets can undo. I hope the streets can undo this decision. I urge people to protest in Cork this Saturday and in Dublin and around the country on 1 April.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I move amendment No. 1 to amendment No. 5:

To insert the following after "increased capacity in the construction sector": "further calls on the Government to:

—remove barriers for older people in long-term nursing home care who wish to lease out their homes, effective from 1st May, 2023;

—increase the refurbishment grant rate for the Croí Cónaithe (Towns) Fund Scheme, to reflect current building costs, effective from 1st May, 2023;

—extend the Croí Cónaithe scheme to include properties which are made available for rent and not just owner-occupied, effective from 1st May, 2023;

—revise the Croí Cónaithe scheme to include properties built prior to 2007, effective from 1st May, 2023;

—extend the Rent-a-Room Relief scheme to people receiving social welfare payments who rent out a room so that they do not lose supplementary benefits, such as the medical card, effective from 1st May, 2023;

—introduce in Budget 2024 a tax relief scheme to take effect in the current tax year for small landlords;

—amend the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) to guarantee payment to landlords where the tenant defaults on payment of contribution to HAP, effective from 1st May, 2023; and

—immediately engage with site owners who have obtained planning permission under the Strategic Infrastructure Development and have not yet commenced building due to viability issues, in order to ensure immediate commencement of these projects under affordable housing schemes".

Our country is facing the worst housing crisis in a century. It is universally agreed that the main issue is housing supply. The Government has failed to address most significant issues that are creating supply constraints. Deputies from all parties in this House, including those from the Minister's party and Fine Gael, have indicated several steps the Government could take to increase supply. The Minister has refused to take on board those suggestions. The effect of motions such as these will not make a blind bit of difference to somebody who may face eviction in the next 12 weeks. Sinn Féin has tabled its motion and should it be successful, it will still not stop the removal of the ban on evictions.

Philip Ryan's article in today's Irish Independentsummed it up. Motions such as this play politics with the housing issue and with people's vulnerabilities. They achieve nothing. Notwithstanding this, the Regional Group put forward eight proposals in our amendment to the Government amendment in an effort to be constructive. These proposals are significant. If they had been implemented by this Government three years ago, we would not be in the position we are in today. They are designed to keep small landlords in the marketplace through the provision of tax relief; the introduction of provisions that make existing permissions viable, thereby unlocking access to some 70,000 housing units which currently have planning permission but have not commenced; the expansion of the rent-a-room scheme; and the amendment of the Croí Cónaithe scheme to augment supply immediately. The Government indicated earlier that it will accept these suggestions although it is not entirely clear from the amendment that was published this evening that this is the case. We need to engage further with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael McGrath, and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, on the amendment they proposed to the motion to ascertain whether it reflects the Regional Group's requirements.

I further await publication of the revised 2009 draft guidelines by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The application of these guidelines has been the main cause of the problems with the viability and delivery of housing. These amended guidelines will be central to unlocking supply.

Three generations of Irish people find themselves in a position where it is practically impossible to purchase a house to rear a family in. Thousands of people may face eviction in the next number of months. The housing crisis now affects foreign direct investment. However, we welcome the epiphany the Government had in accepting the significant amendments proposed today. I caution the Government that we require an undertaking that it will not merely accept our amendments but implement them. Fudging language in motions such as these will not give our constituents homes. We have talked the housing issue to death and meanwhile, hardworking people sleep in their cars or couch surf, and some of them even sleep in tents. It is a national disgrace. The actions, not the words, of the Government need to be unequivocal and immediate. Considering potential future policy positions is not satisfactory. We await further clarity on the immediacy of the Government's actions before committing to supporting the motion.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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Aontú has found through parliamentary questions and freedom of information requests that almost 400 people have died in homelessness on the streets of Dublin in the last five years. That is an incredible figure. The shocking thing is that the national figure is far higher but the Government refused to collect the data in any other county outside of Dublin. The figures I give today do not even count those who are rough sleeping in this country. Those statistics are far higher. Some 11,754 people throughout the State are currently homeless and more than 3,000 of them are children. Some of these children are spending their third St. Patrick's week in emergency accommodation. It has an enormous effect on them.It radically changes their lives. It damages their nutrition, their education, their mental health, their ability to develop friendships and their socialisation. The decision to delete the eviction ban will simply add more people to that homeless figure in the future. As we have this debate, many thousands of families live on the edge of eviction. They are petrified at the thought that the last protection for them is about to evaporate.

The numbers are stark, even in my own county. Right now there are 127 eviction notices in County Meath and 35 rental properties available in the whole of the county. There are no emergency accommodation beds in the local authority in County Meath at the moment. The Minister needs to do the maths. If he looks at the figures throughout the State, he will see that there were 4,741 notices to quit in the three months leading up to when the eviction ban was announced. There are 1,100 homes to rent in the whole of the State. The number of households threatened with eviction is four times greater than the number of existing houses to rent. That is extraordinary. There is no way to argue those figures away. They simply do not add up. People will have nowhere to go and no alternative. In many situations it is a ticking time bomb for people. The worst thing about this is that there is practically no contingency planning by the State at the moment to deal with the humanitarian crisis we are on the precipice of. It is a crisis that has been created by an actual decision of the Minister's Government. Some people will sofa-hop, some will go to their parent's box room, many people will sleep rough, and many people will overhold. There is no doubt about that.

Under Tusla guidelines, if a young family is homeless they must go to the local Garda station. The reason for that is because children are especially vulnerable and going to the Garda station seemingly offers some level of protection compared to what would otherwise be a place of no protection. The gardaí themselves are on the record as saying that Garda stations are not facilities to protect homeless families in this country.

Today the Government published a long amendment to the Sinn Féin motion. It is an amendment, but it is not law and it is not finance. Most of it is a reheating of unfulfilled pledges so far. None of it will be implemented in the ten days that are ticking down to the deletion of the eviction ban. Despite the Government's amendment, that crisis still looms large for those families over the next ten days. If the Government meant business, it would have carried out real reforms. Shockingly, there are 25,515 Airbnb short-term lets available today. The number of Airbnb lets available is 21 times the number of long-term lets available to families. It is extraordinary that the system designed by the Government means that tourists spend their time in homes and families spend their time in hotel rooms. The Government gifted a near-0% tax rate to many big international vulture funds in terms of rentals, but mom-and-pop rentals are taxed at the full level. There has been no effort to change that or to incentivise long-term leases by reducing the tax on those types of rental in the latter stages of long-term leases. The vacant property tax has still not been fully implemented by the Government despite all of the talk on that.

Aontú submitted an amendment to the Journal Office today. It seeks to put a little bit of compassion into the Government's approach to this particular crisis. The amendment "calls on the Government to make provisions to ensure that no person can be evicted if they fulfil any of the following criteria". The proposed criteria are as follows:

— if the tenant or a member of their family living in the relevant accommodation has a disability;

— if the tenant or a member of their family living in the relevant accommodation has a terminal illness, a cancer diagnosis, has suffered a stroke, has advanced heart disease or suffers from poor mental health;

— if the tenant or a member of their family living in the relevant accommodation is pregnant or has given birth in the last three years; and

— if the tenant or a member of their family living in the relevant accommodation is over the age of 65 years.

If backbench Deputies from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party vote against this amendment of compassion they are voting to allow for cohorts of people who are most vulnerable to be evicted in large numbers in the next while. We must remember that each individual Deputy is responsible for their vote. They are responsible for the material effect it will have on the people who will suffer directly as a result of their vote, so I urge Deputies from all parties to support this amendment.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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I object to the Minister for housing leaving the Chamber at this point in time; I really do.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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There is a Minister present so we can continue. Maybe it is not the relevant one.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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Exactly, he is not the Minister for housing.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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However, he is a Minister of Government and a member of the Cabinet so we can continue.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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We are trying to get legislation passed.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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We are used to Ministers running out before we speak. It is total disrespect but they cannot face the truth. The real truth is that this Government has failed miserably in all of its plans to build houses. We have had scheme after scheme rolled out. We have had this promise, that promise and the other promise, but nobody believes it.

All of it is fake news. It is blunder and bluff, as I have said before, from the Minister. We are going back to the Rambo days with the bluff and blunder. If that could build houses, they would be mushrooming up everywhere.

I have no faith in the motion Sinn Féin has brought forward. The people outside are frankly sick and tired of what is going on. The Gallery would be full tonight if people had any interest in this phoney debate between two groups of people who want to play politics with people's lives, with roofs over people's heads and with everything else. It is most distasteful.

Our group, the Rural Independent Group, has tabled a number of amendments to try to give solace to people and to have fair play between tenants and the small house owners who want to rent out their houses. I will not call them landlords because they are ordinary people. Some of them are accidental landlords, some of them are incidental landlords and some of them have made huge investments of money on which they paid tax to buy a property for a rental scheme. The parties of the left here demonise and attack them gach lá as if they were evil land-grabbing people, going back to the days of the Peep o' Day boys and the Whiteboys, as if they were like that. They are decent people. We have seen how tens of thousands of them have left the market because it is not viable to be there any more.

The Government has got advice from the Attorney General. I accept that.

People must have destiny over their own property. I know people in Australia who want to come back and move into their houses but they cannot because they cannot get the tenants out. It is not all one side or the other side here. Fair play is a fine thing by me, but there is not much fair play in what goes on here. There is plenty of talk. If the left and the hard left had their way, they would take the houses off the people who own them - big houses, with people who pay the owners to live in them - and they would have nothing left to live in.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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How many people do we have to blame for this housing crisis? The buck stops across the Chamber with the Government. This Government, the previous Government and the Government before that have failed to provide infrastructure. Not too far from where the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, lives, 100 houses could be built in Croom. I have been waiting a year now for the water connection to be done. It was funded by the Government and still has not been delivered. A hundred houses could house people in Croom tomorrow morning if the Government had pushed that development along, but no. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, came to Limerick recently and announced houses in Patrickswell. The first thing I asked the developer was what the issue was there. It was infrastructure. The developer said there were sewerage capacity issues. We then went to the hospital. It is the same on sites. There is a problem with infrastructure. Five septic tanks were put into an estate of 20 houses because of infrastructure problems.

The buck stops with the Government, not the private landlords or the rental system in this country. We have some very good landlords and we have some very good tenants. We have a minority of bad landlords and bad tenants. If the Government had looked at and accepted the rural Independents' amendments, there would be something for everyone and there would be no one put out on the streets. The buck stops with the Government and its failure to invest in rural Ireland or in infrastructure. You can build all the houses you like once you have infrastructure, and we do not have it. The fault for that lies with the Minister and his Government and the previous Government. If anyone is put out on the road, it will be on Government Members' heads because of their failure to let houses be built in County Limerick. If they give us the infrastructure, we will put roofs over people's heads.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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It is absolutely sickening to listen to what is going on here. Both sides are pontificating as to what they are doing and what they are going to do, while poor people are worried that they will not have a roof over their heads. The Government says that it is doing enough and that it will do more, but it is not doing enough. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have been in power one way or another now for the past 12 years, but why are they not funding the 171 voids in Kerry? I have been asked several times about it. The Government is not building enough quickly enough. It takes two years to do the paperwork for a housing scheme and it takes only a year to build the houses. That is long enough. There are no incentives for house owners. I am not calling them landlords because that is an old English word and we hated what the landlords did to people. There are no incentives for house owners to stay in the renting market. They are being taxed at 52%. What about people with vacant houses? There are 25 vacant houses very close to my door and the owners will not rent them out to anyone because they are afraid they will never again get them back with the way the laws are at the moment. If you pay for and own a house, it should be your fundamental right to do whatever you want with it, including if you want to sell it or want to do something else with it.

Extending this ban will not increase housing supply by one unit or help anyone. It is only kicking the can down the road. To solve the crisis the Government must build more houses and increase supply. There are blockages in planning, sewerage systems and water supply.

I will say one other thing. We have been attacked over the airwaves on Radio Kerry by Deputy Daly telling us what way to vote. When I want advice from Deputy Daly I will ask him for it, but I will see after the people in Kerry in my own way without his direction or-----

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I call Deputy Michael Healy-Rae.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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The Government has had six months to improve what is an extremely challenging housing crisis we have in this country. I think we can all agree that supply is the biggest issue we have. There is a clear lack of it. There is housing all around us: derelict houses, vacant premises, over-the-shop units and still ghost estates from the economic crash. While the Government has introduced some grant schemes that I can see being effective, it is not being aggressive enough to bring back what we have, never mind build enough new houses.

For example, Kerry County Council has 74 houses not currently on the voids programme as it requires €2.2 million to bring them back into use. That money needs to come quicker. There are 42 completely finished houses in Ard an Óir, in Sneem, which are being held up by red tape and which could sleep 300 people tonight. I ask the Minister to check out that issue, to be more proactive on the ground and to talk to councillors in each local authority.

Some 479 planning applications have been stuck in the black hole of An Bord Pleanála for over 12 months. How many housing units is that? An Bord Pleanála seems incapable of making decisions.

The Government is now looking at making improvements for property owners renting out houses. It is now looking at bringing in extra protection for renters. Why was this not done in the last six months? Instead, the Government is willing to leave renters on the cliff edge waiting to see if their eviction notices will come.

I want to see the ban remain in place until the Government finally gets to work and puts adequate protections in place for renters and property owners. Just in case the rest of the people here think they have all the answers, they do not. That is the sad thing about it. We have people here tonight, some of whom took to Twitter yesterday evening, who would stand here and criticise and demonise people like me for owning property. I will take care of and sleep many people tonight, as will other people like me, but others in this House will only be dreaming of what development they will object to next in their constituencies. Many people in People Before Profit, or whatever it is called these days, Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael engage in this disgraceful practice.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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I will support the continuation of the eviction ban. I have made this very clear from the word "go". I have a lot of sympathy, though, for those who have houses and are basically called landlords, which is a disgraceful name to call quite a lot of them. They are property owners and have a right to make a little profit, and most of them are making a loss.

What far outweighs their situation is the number of people who come to me in a terrible state with eviction letters. These are ordinary men and women, ordinary mothers and fathers who do not know where to turn. Unfortunately, this has been going on since I got elected here in 2016. We continue to talk about it but little or nothing has been done by successive governments. They have failed the people and, unfortunately, even if this ban is extended until January, nothing will change. These people will still be coming to me. I have one member of staff dealing full-time with council house issues. She said to me once that when a number of houses come up in choice-based letting, CBL, her phone will explode for the day and she will be in the office all day long, with people crying, "Please, give me the house because I am going to be evicted from the house I am in." That is the situation in which we find ourselves. I had a woman in my clinic the other day. I could not get her out because she was half an hour crying. I was quite sympathetic to her but, unfortunately, I can do nothing for her. I am trying my best to get her a house but she is desperate.

We have tabled a number of amendments, which I hope the Government will accept and which would protect and encourage the property owners to stay in the business. They are running from the crisis in which they find themselves.

There are parties in here that remind me a bit of "The Late Late Show". It is one for everyone in the audience. They think a house should be for everybody in the audience.

We have an issue here that is being continued by successive governments. They refuse to give people planning permission in my area. I have young couples coming to me who are willing and able to get loans but cannot even get planning permission. People in Barryroe, Timoleague and Ballydehob in the past week have been in the same situation. Out on Sherkin Island, there is one girl on her parents' land who spent €10,000 and was refused planning. We are shoving people into social housing. It is a crisis and this Government has continued to give only fake words for the past number of years.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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I thank Deputy Ó Broin for tabling this motion. I welcome the Minister back to the Chamber. It was totally disrespectful that he left.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I would not have missed the Deputy.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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I am not saying it is about me. I am talking about the debate and the people who are facing notices to quit.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I had to step out for a minute.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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From listening to the Taoiseach's earlier statements, it is clear that even he has lost faith in the ability of the Government to deal with the housing crisis. Out of one side of his mouth, last January he said things could be even worse, but out of the other side comes the Government's policies we are all supposed to be reassured by. The Government knows its policies are not working and that it is not taking sufficient actions to make a dent in this housing crisis.

In 11 days from now, thousands of people will face losing their homes, and people with disabilities, those who are ill or elderly, and families with autistic children will be affected by this. The Government had five months to put emergency measures in place but it has not stepped up to the mark. There has been a €1 billion housing underspend since 2019. The first refusal to buy proposal is a joke. Ordinary people have no chance of being able to afford to buy houses, especially those paying high rents. Where is the legislation that is ready to expand the tenant in situscheme to approved housing bodies? Dublin City Council bought only 25 properties from January 2022 to March 2023 under the scheme. According to the assistant chief executive of Dublin City Council, the total number of TISs acquired since January 2022 to March 2023 was 25. He went on to say that the total number of inquiries relating to the TIS scheme between January 2022 and March 2023 was 322. Everybody is giving out misinformation. Those details are from the chief housing executive manager. I do not know where the resources or staff will be found to ramp up the scheme.

I listened to Mr. Pat Greene from Dublin Simon Community last Thursday, who said no one knows what will happen on 1 April. He said Dublin Simon Community does not have the resources or any emergency accommodation. I do not believe the measures the Minister announced will make a real difference to anyone losing their tenancy or home next month. People facing eviction do not have time to wait for a budget or for the Government to get its act together on all these new promises. In my constituency office, we have seen all sorts of problems with the Government's existing schemes, such as valuations that differ between the landlord and council.We dealt with two tenants living in one council area, South Dublin County Council, who are on the Dublin City Council housing list. Mercy Law Resource Centre was mentioned, which has also come up against this problem. We have landlords who do not understand how much they will save on legal fees if they sell to the council. The system as it stands is just not ready to face the strain the Government is about to put on it.

At least one family a day comes into my constituency office with a notice to quit. Where are they supposed to go? Our emergency accommodation is at breaking point. The Government has failed to provide nearly enough new places for the thousands of people who will face eviction into homelessness. The Government is leaving thousands of people with nowhere to go. It is forcing people to have to overhold. All we have to tell people if they are facing eviction into homelessness is to keep paying their rent and keep their lease agreement, but two weeks before they are due to be evicted they should write to their landlord to state they will overhold. The issue will then have to be brought to the RTB system. Anything else is illegal eviction. It is not much and does not solve the problem the Government has created but it will buy tenants a couple more months with a roof over their heads. If people are facing eviction into homelessness and have nowhere to go, they should not leave until they have a court order. My office will help people who have to do this. Threshold, and any decent Deputy or councillor, will help them. If they do not, people will know whose side they are on.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion. It is not the way to do policy to force us to bring a motion that, on this occasion, is tabled by Sinn Féin. There are then amendments, some of which I understand. I could not agree with some of them because they are not enforceable. We are left like this, dealing with policy in this manner, which is totally unacceptable. If the Government had bona fides on this matter, it would have tabled a debating time and allowed us to hear the measures it brought in while the moratorium was in place, but it did not do that. It has been forced, screaming every step of the way, to tell us what it is doing.

In the meantime, the Simon Community in Galway is telling us we are now heading for the tourism season. Accommodation that was being used for emergency accommodation will not be available. I know it is difficult for the Minister and the Minister of State to listen to all this but it is important. This is the only time we get a few minutes to try to highlight issues. We are not negative. We are not here to say we are bound by ideology. I am here because almost 12,000 people - there is no need to exaggerate because the figures are so damning - 11,754 are homeless and the Government is planning to lift the moratorium on evictions coming into effect on Lá na nAmadán, April Fools' Day. It does not even see the lack of humour in that. People will have no place to go. We have repeatedly asked the Government where they will go and it has no answer.

The Simon Community, which is on the ground in Galway, does a quarterly report. No places are available. Everybody has read out a testimony. Time will not allow me to do so. One family is waiting and waiting with no place to go. They are trying to raise four children, one of whom is doing exams, and have children as young as four and five who have nowhere to go. Did the Minister and the Minister of State come to the House to tell us what their plan of action was? No, they did not. They have given empty boasting. I will specifically address that in my last minute. I will highlight the task force in Galway that was set up because there was a crisis there. Finally, the Government conceded to setting up a task force. Where are the reports? There has not been one report. The chair was to have a report by November 2022. We are now almost in April and there has been no report on the analysis of the housing crisis in Galway where rents are the second worst in the country.

The Minister boasted about the schemes that have been brought in. The Taoiseach and Tánaiste told us about the help-to-buy scheme. That scheme is helping the wrong people. The analysis that has been done, and various reports, indicate that we would not start here but it is now embedded and so cannot be taken out. Nearly €1 billion has been allocated to the help-to-buy scheme, which has helped consultants. They are in my family. I say avail of the scheme but who is being helped through the scheme must be analysed, when a quarter or a third of applicants do not need help with deposits. There is then the mortgage-to-rent scheme. Not a single analysis has ever been done on the value for money of that scheme. A company has now been invited to come in. I understand the Housing Agency, or whatever the relevant agency is, has suspended all contracts with that private company in respect of the scheme.

All these are jigsaw pieces the Government picks and chooses to suit the narrative, while all the time we have commodified housing. We have made it impossible. The Minister trades insults across a room and says the Opposition does not want people to have houses. Yes, I do. I want them to have public and private housing. I want the prices to come down. I want to stop the absolute idiocy of trading empty insults across a room and an acknowledgement that the very policies the Government is pursuing are causing the problem.

Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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I have found the debate quite profoundly depressing, as will many people watching it, especially those who fear homelessness. The reality is we need to fundamentally reform our residential tenancies sector. It was developed in 2004 for a very different Ireland, when large landlords might have had ten or 15 properties. We now have huge real estate funds coming in and buying up developments and apartment blocks. There is no reason whatsoever that there should not be security of tenure when people are investing like that. These are international investors and there is no reason Ireland should be unlike the rest of the world.

However, there is a difference between that and small, incidental, accidental landlords who build a house and have to move to another part of the country. We want them to let out their houses but, equally, they will not let out their houses unless they can get them back. People who buy a house or apartment for their children, and have done in the past, in order to send them to college are privileged - certain people in this House despise privilege - which I acknowledge. However, we have a right to private property and, unless we change that, these people should be able to rent out their properties until such time as they need them for the purpose for which they were bought.

What will be achieved by extending the eviction ban until next January other than being in the same place, but it will be winter? Along with Deputies Harkin and Fitzmaurice, I propose we extend the ban until next June with the same conditions as were brought in for Ukrainians so that planning would not be required to bring buildings back into use or to convert buildings to residential use or for temporary accommodation.

The idea that all the houses required will be built by January 2024 is not possible. We will not even have planning permission by then. I, therefore, urge Sinn Féin to perhaps consider that.

If we are to extend it, individuals will have to be able to move back into properties, otherwise they are just going to be driven out of the market and make a bad situation worse.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I thank everybody who has contributed to the debate.

In the limited time I have, I want to deal with facts and to address a number of points that have been raised by individual Deputies.

Deputy Ó Broin led off the debate. The tenant in situ scheme has been expanded and it has been in place since last April. We would like to have seen a greater take-up. The senior Minister has written to the local authorities to tell them to purchase properties, whatever tenant is in situ. The Deputy spoke about the emergency planning for vacant and derelict buildings. Sinn Féin has consistently opposed the Croí Cónaithe scheme, which is what this scheme is about.

The Deputy then spoke about the biggest social and affordable housing programme. Housing for All is that programme. I listened to the debate tonight and I did not see anything in what Sinn Féin is putting forward that specifically deals with a real, thought-out, logical housing programme.

I then move to Deputy Bacik who raised her party's proposal If one is looking at ceasing the eviction ban with four consecutive months of a reduction, if it goes down by a euro, it will be removed. That is not a material change and the proposal is not properly thought through. She also made reference to Dublin City Council in respect of the number of units. Dublin City Council have come forward to say that it is in the process of looking at 280 tenant in situunits at the moment.

Deputy Cian O’Callaghan spoke about the possibility of there being no private rental sector. We have to have a balance and I find it difficult to understand why Sinn Féin demonises small private landlords.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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We do not demonise small landlords.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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It does, while at the same time, this also comes down to that balance between tenants’ rights and so forth.

With regard to Deputy Verona Murphy's contribution, we agreed to the amendment tabled by the Regional Group. She spoke about the density guidelines, which are currently being finalised and will go out to public consultation. This is something we are very strong on.

Deputy Connolly is gone and she mentioned the help-to-buy scheme.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Deputy Connolly is in the Chair.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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My apologies to Deputy Connolly as she is in the Chair.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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She has changed roles.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The help-to-buy scheme provides a deposit on a home and that is totally overlooked. Yes, people are paying high rents but the scheme provides a deposit on a house and, furthermore, the mortgage-to-rent scheme allows people to stay in their homes and everything should be about keeping people in their homes. That is of great importance.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae spoke about nothing happening since the moratorium came in. The Government was very definite about the moratorium in that it was always going to be a temporary measure and was never supposed to be permanent. All Deputies agreed that it should not be permanent measure. Sinn Féin wanted it to go next January on a cliff edge. There is no cliff edge here and it will last until 18 June.

We have built 10,000 social units since the moratorium came in across a range of areas.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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The Government has not a notion and should not be talking about what it is doing now.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Furthermore, there are at the moment 6,300 emergency beds through all the local authorities for single people and beds are available for 1,500 families. We would like to see more. There are 2,000 coming onstream across all local authority areas which is something we very much want to bring onstream.

Over the past year, more than 5,700 people were either taken out of homelessness or prevented from going into homelessness. During the moratorium, there were nearly 1,500 such people. That is once again overlooked.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Homelessness went up.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am talking about the numbers being taken out of homelessness. We accept that homelessness went up but I believe it is overlooked that during that period, of 5,700 people, some 3,700 of whom were prevented from going into homelessness and some 2,000 were taken out of it.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Why are you getting rid of the ban then?

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The ban was always going to be temporary and we wanted to ensure that we had further policies to bring landlords back into the market and have them stay in the market.

With due respect to Deputy McDonald, her party is seeking a three-year ban on rent increases. What will that do to the landlord market? Furthermore, her party is looking to levy €400 on a second home, so that cost will be passed back to the person who is renting. Her party’s policies are not thought through.

We have a document, Housing for All, which runs up to 2030 and deals with all areas, including social and affordable housing. There were 9,100 social homes provided in 2021 and when the figures come in for 2022 it will be the highest number of social units built in the past 50 years.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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Did the Minister of State forget about his own county?

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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There were 30,000 units built overall last year, which was a record.

What might also be missed is that since this Government has come into being, 10,900 people have been taken off the social housing list. That has to be positive.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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How many went on it?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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That is a net decrease.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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That is a net decrease. There were 68,000 people on the housing list back in 2019 and there is just short of 58,000 now.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The Government is putting them into HAP-----

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Sinn Féin wants to do away with HAP and with due respect to the Deputy, he is selling something that is not based on reality. His party is scaring people in respect of evictions.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State has his head in the sand, along with his mates.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy needs to understand that we have 1,500 people-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I thought that the senior Minister was bad but this is embarrassing.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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-----received extra HAP in the final quarter of the past year and, furthermore, 19,000 tenancies were created in January and February of this year.

It is not all bad news. We understand that it is difficult for people but we want to ensure that we continue to have extra supply for people who are in social housing and on HAP; that councils will continue to purchase at pace under the tenantin situscheme; that further schemes will come in, including first opportunity to purchase for people who are renting; and that there is a bespoke scheme coming in for people who are renting and who are not on social housing so that the local authorities, on an administrative basis, can purchase those homes and rent them back at a reasonable and normal rate.

The capital advance leasing facility, CALF, scheme is also being amended, which will make it more viable for AHBs to build.

The Deputies speak about us not having done anything for tenants. Back in July last year, we considerably extended the notice period for tenants. Furthermore, rent pressure zones have been in place since 2019.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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They do not work.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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They work for tenantsin situ. Their rents have gone up by just short of 4%-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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A year.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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-----over the past number of years.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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It is 20% over five years.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The problem is that there is not enough supply. For new rentals, the rents are too high. For existing tenants, however, it has worked. That is completely overlooked. When the Deputy speaks about rents becoming higher, they are. I accept that. He does not qualify that comment by saying that it is new tenancies.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I absolutely do.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy does not.

He gives the impression that it applies-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Existing tenants have seen a 20% increase in five years.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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-----across the board.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Deputy, please let the Minister of State finish.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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We have also brought in a measure whereby local authority managers can now suspend the Part 8 process and shave 20 weeks off the period it takes to get properties built. Furthermore-----

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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Without infrastructure.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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-----if Sinn Féin is so interested in building, why is it objecting systematically to housing developments?

A Deputy:

We are not objecting.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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Reality check: no infrastructure, no houses.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I commend the Government countermotion to the House.