Go raibh maith agat. The Taoiseach's policy of withdrawing medical cards from sick citizens has no credibility whatsoever. Private Members' business this evening, which is a Sinn Féin motion on this issue, will give him an opportunity to change his tune and to rectify this crisis.

There is also another crisis, a major housing crisis causing untold misery to thousands of citizens, including children. Within sight of this Chamber there are thousands of people, some young and some not so young, sleeping rough on our streets. Other families - thousands of them - are living in cramped, over-crowded conditions with parents and grandparents because they cannot get a home of their own.

Mortgage distress is also a major social issue. The number of families in mortgage arrears is now 136,564. The Taoiseach's proposal, as I heard it on "Morning Ireland", aimed at encouraging banks to lend more only to buyers of new houses reads like an extract from the election stunt section of the Fianna Fáil handbook of strokes and other scams. It does not make any sense in dealing with the crisis. There are also well-founded concerns that his proposal will lead to inflated houses prices. The Taoiseach must know that housing lists in all local authorities are lengthening. The bill for emergency accommodation is spiralling. There is a tenfold increase in the past year in spending by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive on emergency accommodation. The Peter McVerry Trust has dealt with 3,600 homeless cases, mostly young men, in the last 12 months alone and the number of families losing their homes has more than doubled according to Focus Ireland. That spending on housing in Dublin city is to be reduced by €53 million. A radical change of policy is needed.

Sinn Féin's housing spokesperson, Deputy Ellis, has already suggested a plan of investment in social housing that would see the construction of 7,500 new homes on top of current targets.

There is €1 billion of unused money in the strategic investment fund that could be used to stimulate the construction industry, mar is eol don Taoiseach, níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin. Will the Taoiseach commit to taking this practical measure as part of a package of initiatives, including the introduction of a right to housing, protection of families from eviction and rent controls?

Deputy Adams talks about changing tunes here. There are a few issues on which he could change tune himself, but I will not go into that now. When he speaks about the housing problem and puts forward Deputy Ellis's view that we should take €1 billion from the National Pensions Reserve Fund and start building houses, even Deputy Adams with all his magic could not conjure up houses in the next six months. Today the Government will launch its construction strategy with 75 specific actions to stimulate this industry. I want the Deputy to understand that the legacy left behind by the people sitting to the Deputy's left is an obscenity on Ireland and its people.

Hear, hear.

I refer to pyrite, greed, corruption, planning scandals and credit as if it could be thrown about forever.

The Taoiseach could not care that his councillors were stuck in the middle.

They have gone very quiet.

As I said before to the Deputy previously, the hallmark of the previous Government's catastrophic failure was Priory Hall. It put people into those kinds of housing units.

Will Deputies stay quiet please?

Yet again this Government has to come along and clean up the mess.

A Fine Gael-led local authority allowed Priority Hall, for God's sake.

And Deputy Adams's friend built it.

I make no apology for saying I do not accept anybody's assertions that this Government, in cleaning up this mess, will go down the road of creating a further housing bubble.

That was a Fine Gael-Sinn Féin partnership.

There are 100,000 people on the live register who were involved in the construction industry, including plasterers, blocklayers, chippies, tillers, roofers and everything else. We want these people to have an opportunity to get back into the world of work. We want families, young people and those starting on the housing ladder get top-quality housing at affordable prices, not like what we had before and which unfortunately we have discovered in various parts of the country. Today the Government will launch a strategy in this regard. Yesterday, as a further indication of where Government stands on this, €50 million was allocated to the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government with responsibility for housing to address homelessness, where a further €10 million is put in, with €20 million for direct construction and €20 million to bring back a further number of houses that are empty and boarded up, and could make very good homes. That will bring the figure involved to 1,800. This is an issue that concerns families, people, jobs, employment and opportunity. It is not about contractors or developers. It is not about greed or bankers.

It is all about the Taoiseach.

It is about people, our economy and jobs for the future.

What about the €60 million the Government cut off?

I interpret the Taoiseach's answer as "No" because I put forward a thought-out suggestion. The Taoiseach talks about people; this is about citizens. There is a difference between people and citizens: citizens have rights, including the right to a home. The Government is going to announce its construction strategy. Will the Taoiseach bring it in here so that we can discuss it and make suggestions? No, it will not come into the Oireachtas with it. It is going elsewhere with it and it is doing the type of thing that the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, does in an election campaign. People will see through this.

Deputy Adams is a good hand at it.

Would Deputies please allow a reply and stay quiet. I also ask Deputy Adams to stick to his time.

Okay, a Cheann Comhairle. Go raibh maith agat.

This is like a circus.

I entirely agree.

Deputies should sit here and listen to it. I fear to think what the public thinks about it. People are shouting from the back benches as if they are making a contribution.

I give a thumbnail sketch of a deep crisis of which I am sure the Taoiseach is aware. There is also another issue the Taoiseach did not answer. At the end of my contribution I asked about the citizens who are being forced into homelessness by rising rents in the private sector, yet the Government refuses to introduce fair rent control to tackle this. The www.daft.ie website has claimed that rents in Dublin have increased by 14%, and by 9% across the State in the past year. Fair rents alone will not solve the housing crisis but it must be part of a package of initiatives to help ease the problem.

The building of social housing needs to start now. We are not looking for much and we know what is needed.

Please put your question.

Surely it is the duty of the State to defend citizens against rack-renting landlords by setting rents at fair levels and by providing homes for citizens. Where is the State's duty of care especially to children as the Taoiseach sees it? What is the Government doing to tackle this crisis, which will only worsen in the time ahead?

I met a young mother yesterday evening on one of the streets where I was canvassing. She had three children under five and she cried bitter tears in that she had been sent to a very small apartment with inadequate facilities in an area that is used by drug pushers and drug users. It was a very powerful statement made by this young mother. At the height of the boom in 2006-----

I want to talk about now, today.

Perhaps we should also talk about the past as well.

We will talk about now, today.

Please-----

In 2006 there were 93,000 housing units completed. The corresponding figure for last year was 8,000, a reduction of 91%. We have a construction sector that is about half the size it should be and is very much below European standards. We should be building 25,000 to 30,000 houses a year.

Give us the investment fund then.

That is why some €88 million has gone into the coffers of the Minister of State with responsibility for housing for social housing. It is why NAMA wants to provide 4,500 houses over the next two to three years. It is why we want to see a return to the construction sector with the hopeful creation of 60,000 jobs between now and 2020.

In Canada.

We need to have a process for dealing with the valid claims of young couples and young people to get a start on the housing ladder with affordable quality housing built by people who know what they are doing. We do not want to have apartment after apartment fired up and after they are occupied we discover they either have pyrite or are like Priory Hall. We are not going back there. We will get this right in the interests of the people, jobs, the citizens and our country. In that sense we will need to wait some time before we can put blocks on the ground and put people in those houses.

Even with the proposal of Deputy Ellis - good man that he is - of putting €1 billion on the table, we would still have to wait 18 months or two years before the families can move in.

We know that.

That is not what his leader says.

We need to start now.

I call Deputy Catherine Murphy.

What about the €30 million for Pairc Uí Chaoimh?

In the last budget the Government cut housing by €60 million.

We added €88 million.

Block the ears.

I called Deputy Catherine Murphy.

What happened at-----

It allocated €30 million for Pairc Uí Chaoimh.

If Deputy Ellis cannot control himself he should leave the Chamber and stop annoying himself.

We are in a crisis.