I do not know whether the Taoiseach read an article by Kitty Holland in the News Review section of The Irish Times on Saturday. The article laid bare an appalling and shameful scandal concerning the number of homeless children in present-day Ireland, particularly in Dublin. Tonight, 700 children will be sleeping in hostels, hotel rooms or other forms of emergency accommodation. These children are not in their own bedrooms and are not in what they could call their homes or communities. There is only one reason for it: their parents cannot pay the rent. This is a country-wide problem. There are around 118 children in this situation outside Dublin, but it has been particularly acute in Dublin over the past 18 months. In May 2013, there were about 58 adults with children in emergency accommodation - bed and breakfast accommodation, hotel rooms and so on. Fast forward to November 2013, and that figure had doubled to 128 adults with children in emergency accommodation. By May 2014 the figure had risen to 184, and in October 2014, we were looking at 421 adults and around 700 children in emergency accommodation.

That is shameful by any standards, particularly if we are meant to cherish all the children of the nation equally. The fundamental issue in an emergency and crisis response sense is that the rent allowance caps introduced by the Tánaiste have exacerbated the situation beyond belief. Essentially, someone in receipt of rent allowance can pay only a certain amount of rent because of the cap. It has proved catastrophic for the families concerned. These are low income families and the majority of them have not experienced homelessness previously. The anxiety, stress and trauma it causes to parents and their children are enormous. A five year old child was quoted as saying, "I can't draw my house - I don't remember what it looks like....At weekends I don't have friends come to play."

Does the Taoiseach accept this is a crisis and that it demands an emergency response? Will he immediately raise the rent allowance caps as an emergency measure to facilitate people on low incomes to meet the spiralling rents that have increased dramatically in the past 12 months, particularly in the city of Dublin?

A situation whereby children, in particular, are homeless is not one that anybody can condone. The Deputy will be aware that a protocol exists with Focus Ireland, Threshold and the Department of Health-----

I cannot hear the Taoiseach.

-----which have dealt with approximately 150 cases to date and improved the situation for them. The movement is towards a case-by-case management situation. Obviously, there is a reason children or families end up homeless, and part of that has been the increases in rents, where landlords have removed families from accommodation for higher rents. That is reflected in the Government's response and the allocation of €2.2 billion for social housing, together with the moneys allocated for improvements to 1,800 void dwellings in Dublin, which are in the course of being reconstructed, renovated and made fit for families. The city manager reports progress to the Cabinet sub-committee on a monthly basis so that families can be housed. Nobody wants to see this. Everybody is aware that following the complete collapse of the construction sector, the requirement and demand for housing are now at an all time premium, particularly in Dublin. I expect that the Construction 2020 proposition put forward by the Government and being followed through by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Coffey, will by 2020 result in having the social housing demand eliminated-----

What about tonight?

-----with the allocation of almost €2.2 billion-----

We are in an emergency now.

-----which is unprecedented in the context of the scale of providing facilities to build houses for families.

It is not unprecedented. It was done in the 1970s.

Clearly there is an emergency for many of these cases and nobody wants to see a family out on the street, much less children on the street. The protocol that is in place is working in respect of families-----

Not for the people with whom I have dealt.

Deputy Finian McGrath should ask those who have been helped by it.

There are queues out the door at my clinics of people dealing with housing issues.

That has moved to a case-by-case management system. It cannot deal with all of the cases immediately but it is a priority for the Minister and the Government, and the resources are being made available to deal with that in the best way possible. Until we get to a point where we provide sufficient social housing, we cannot reduce the scale of demand, and that requires flexibility in planning permission, an availability of resources and competent contractors who can get down to business and start providing homes and houses for people who clearly have a demand for them, and have had that demand for a number of years.

What about the rent caps?

The rent situation has been addressed already by the Minister.

I call Deputy Martin.

Fianna Fáil did nothing about it during the boom.

Deputy Durkan did not get the point.

Deputy Finian McGrath was involved in it too.

Please allow Deputy Martin to speak.

Throw him out.

The Government is sleepwalking through the crisis. Last year Focus Ireland saw eight families going homeless every month. This year the figure is 50 per month. That is Focus Ireland alone. The Taoiseach referred to the pilot scheme which it initiated. This cannot be solved on a case-by-case basis; it requires a system-wide response. The most effective emergency response is to raise the rent caps. People are currently restricted in what they can pay if they are in receipt of rent allowance. Basically, it is completely out of kilter with what the market is demanding in rents, with the result that thousands of low income families across the country cannot access private rented accommodation. Will the Taoiseach face up to that, accept that the change was catastrophic and recognise that something needs to happen? The rent allowance caps have to be raised immediately and rent control has to be considered if that is an issue. A change to the rent allowance caps would make an immediate difference. The 700 children who are sleeping in hotel rooms or bed and breakfasts tonight cannot wait until 2020 to have this problem solved. One child said she did not want to be in a hotel room for Christmas because it is just a room. There are many more quotes.

Every Government should have key priorities. The Taoiseach chose his own priorities in the budget by looking after people who are in far better conditions than the people affected by the appalling homelessness scandal we are now witnessing. It is within the power of the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste to do something about it, however, and I urge them to change tack and increase the rent allowance as a matter of urgency.

Focus Ireland and Threshold have expressed satisfaction with the way the protocol is working.

No, they have not.

They have dealt with 150 cases. Deputy Martin will be aware that 73,000 families are in receipt of rental allowance, at a cost of €315 million. This allows for movement through the protocol to a more satisfactory solution for the families concerned. The largest ever allocation, of €2.2 billion, for social and affordable housing has been made available by the Government.

Over how many years?

Obviously, we have to get competent contractors on the ground to build the housing. I have already mentioned the allocation for improving, renovating and renewing voided dwellings in Dublin. Work is currently under way in this regard and I am assured by the city council that units will be allocated on an expeditious basis so that families do not have to wait, as they did previously, for nine or ten months after a place was renovated or brought to a state where it is fit for people to live in comfortably. The Government is well aware of the scale of this issue. The Supreme Court made a ruling in respect of rent controls.

I asked about rent allowance caps.

With low income families, the priority is to provide social and affordable housing. That is why the largest ever allocation was put in place.

What about rent allowance?