Today, there is another report from Simon stating that rents in Dublin are up 8.2% since last year. Daft.ie says that nationally rent for a two-bedroom house is 20% above the rent supplement. Families with children are being squeezed out of the rental market, yet the Minister has refused to increase the rent supplement, even though the Minister, the Tánaiste and their Government colleagues have been asked to do so since 2012.

The supply of private housing, in Dublin in particular, is stagnant. House repossession cases continue apace, with 100 alone in Cork today. There could be thousands more on the housing waiting list by the end of the year, according to Fr. Peter McVerry.

Let there be no doubt that, unfortunately, this Government has let this national crisis develop. It has reacted with too little, too late. Even though it has made many announcements, subsequent actions have been few and far between.

There is chaos in the housing sector and the number of homeless people is mounting. There is no easing off at all and the Government has failed to address the issue. It is not just me or any other Member of the Opposition who is saying this, it is being said by Simon, Focus Ireland, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Brother Kevin and Fr. McVerry.

Up to 3,000 vacant units across the country require refurbishment before families can move into them, yet the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, and the Government have cut €6 million from the refurbishment fund. It makes no sense whatsoever. In fact, it is a lesson in how to make things worse. For the past four and a half years, the Government has insisted that rent supplement will not be increased as it would drive rents higher. Why is the Government persisting in using rent supplement to control the private sector, rather than as the poverty-alleviating measure it is meant to be?

Lastly, I want to ask a question that has been answered in many different forms in recent weeks, so I would like to have some clarity on it. The Minister, Deputy Kelly, and the Taoiseach have sought to answer it. Last Tuesday week, the Taoiseach said that on foot of a Cabinet meeting that morning, the Government had ordered 150 modular housing units for Dublin families. How much have they cost, when will they be delivered, is emergency planning legislation required for them to be placed and, most importantly, when will families be moved into them?

First of all, it is not acceptable that in Ireland in 2015 we have families living in emergency accommodation. It is not acceptable to the Government, the Oireachtas or the people.

The Minister is in government.

That is a shared perspective on the fact that we have a serious problem here.

The Minister is not in opposition now. He has been in Government for four and a half years.

As the Deputy well knows, many of the problems stem from a chronic lack of supply of housing, which is causing knock-on problems across the property market and the wider society, including renters, first-time buyers and low-income households. What we have to do is take action to resolve it, as the Deputy is calling for. That is what this Government is doing. As the House will be aware, the Government is progressing a number of suitable property and policy solutions for families who are in emergency accommodation.

There is a range of measures already under way taken by the Minister and by the Government. I will mention a few of them. For example, returning void units to full use is in train. The Minister, Deputy Kelly, has indicated to local authorities that additional funding will be made available. Indeed, he has made additional funding available in circumstances where local authorities exceed their 2015 targets. The most recent projections we have indicate that over 2,500 voids will be returned nationally by year's end. I am giving that as an example.

As regards the scale of homelessness, we accept that we have a problem. Some 3,372 adult individuals used State-funded emergency accommodation nationally during a week in August 2015. Those figures identify 707 families in emergency accommodation consisting of 959 adults and 1,496 dependants. We understand that the problem is serious and we are addressing it.

How are we addressing it? In 2015, there was an allocation in the Dublin region of €37.16 million. That was confirmed for the Dublin region and represents more than 70% of all the funding allocated nationally. The Dublin region homeless executive has confirmed that its expenditure to the end of August was €33.4 million with further expenditure committed but not yet paid out. These are the actions that are being taken.

Officials of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government are in ongoing liaison with the Dublin region homeless executive and Dublin City Council on further possible 2015 requirements.

The Deputy raised the issue of modular housing. I note that the latter proposal, which is only one aspect of resolving this problem, has been well received by organisations, including NGOs and other interested bodies and individuals in this sector. They have welcomed it.

The Government has approved the immediate initiation of a programme for the early delivery of 500 modular housing units. They will be delivered in two tranches of 150 and 350. The first 150 units are planned to be delivered within four months, on sites in the Dublin City Council area, utilising the most expeditious procurement and planning provisions available to us.

A parallel process to develop a national framework will be overseen by the Office of Government Procurement to address the issue raised by the Deputy. This framework will be used to deliver the additional 350 units I mentioned. It will also be available to any local authority to procure further modular housing.

There are many other policy instruments that are being adopted and pursued by the Minister and the Government, including tenancy protection and the allocation of local authority tenancies. We have a taskforce on social housing and homelessness.

This is a second stage speech, in fairness.

This issue is an extremely challenging problem for the Government and nobody is making light of that for one moment. However, it has to be addressed through practical, systematic measures taken by the Government and the Minister, Deputy Kelly, in particular, to ensure that we address this difficult and challenging problem.

The Minister might answer the question. We are not down in the Four Courts now.

The Government is doing that and we will deliver the answers that are required in terms of bringing these issues to a conclusion.

The Minister is a great man to commentate, like some of his colleagues beside him.

Where is angry Alex?

It is similar to a lot of his announcements and press releases, talking about it being a number one priority, but there is no action to follow up on any of this. I asked the Minister, notwithstanding-----

What utter rubbish.

Excuse me, if you do not mind.

The Government has had four and half years to address the issue and has not addressed it to date.

Please.

I have no doubt-----

What was Fianna Fáil doing for 14 years?

Between 2007 and 2010 some 14,500 units were built by local authorities on foot of Government policy.

That was when Fianna Fáil was destroying the country.

In the first three years of this Government, it built 107. Ten local authorities have built none. That is the Government's legacy.

I will leave that with the Government Deputies. They may wish to mull over that for a moment.

Please.

If I am allowed, I will ask a supplementary question with regard to the answer I got from the gentleman across the floor.

That was when the country was awash with Fianna Fáil's borrowed money.

Can we have order, please? Deputy Cowen has the floor.

The Government is driving them onto the streets.

Deputy Cowen has the floor. This is Leaders' Questions.

I will get to the nub of the question I specifically asked. A sense of immediacy and urgency is required to deal with the terrible situation that exists on the streets of Dublin and many other parts of the country. This morning we heard people talking about living in tents. We heard a woman on the radio some weeks ago who was living in a hotel. A total of 1,500 families are in emergency accommodation. A sense of immediacy and urgency is required to address this issue.

Some weeks ago, the Taoiseach and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government said the 150 units that had been ordered would be in place before Christmas. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy White, is now telling me it will be up to four months. At this stage, that means it will go on to February. Is the Minister sure, even at that, where they will be located and whether planning permission will have been secured for them in order that they can be in place within four months? It is highly unlikely, given how the procurement and planning process works and the length of time it takes. Deputy White should know that as well as I do.

That being the case, what can the Government do at this stage, further to what the Minister said on television last Sunday and what he and the Taoiseach have said in the House previously? Will the Government bring forward emergency legislation to allow for planning permission to be more forthcoming than it is under the normal procurement process? That is the sort of immediacy and urgency that needs to be brought to the House to address this emergency issue in real terms. Some 130,000 people are on the waiting list, but there were 90,000 when the Government came to office. Fully 2,600 homes throughout the country are empty.

Deputy, you are over time.

The Government has cut the amount of refurbishment funding by €6 million year-on-year. These are the facts. The Government must now deal with the urgency and immediacy of the situation if those responsible want some legacy in this area before they go to the country.

Deputy Durkan should relax and take a deep breath.

The Minister has the floor, please.

The Deputy accuses me-----

Could we have order, please? The Minister is replying.

The Deputy will not be happy until everyone is in a shed.

The Deputy accuses me of engaging in commentary. That is strange coming from him. He says there has been no action. An additional €2.2 billion in funding was announced in budget 2015 in respect of the social housing strategy.

That is for three years.

The strategy is a comprehensive response - reasonable people and those in the House will accept that - to the need for social housing. We need to build houses.

Fifteen hundred children are in hotels.

We have a problem and we need to build houses. Even the Deputies opposite must understand that it takes time to put together a process by which we can actually build houses.

The Government has had four and half years to do it.

We have a target of 110,000 social housing units by 2020, including 35,000 new social housing units and 75,000 through the housing assistance payment.

That is absolute fantasy.

That is not commentary; that is the target. If the Members opposite have practical proposals to make and practical suggestions - I will come to the one the Deputy made in a moment - we would be delighted to hear them. However, sometimes I get an impression that these difficult and serious social issues are being used. There is always a danger that Members are leveraging them to make a political point in the House rather than actually trying to address or resolve a real and pressing social problem. There is always a danger-----

If it is necessary to introduce legislation to address the procurement question, I am sure the Minister will do that.

The Minister says "If it is necessary". He does not even know.

Legislation may not be necessary to address the issue of procurement. It may well be possible to deliver these modular homes without having to change the legislation.

The Deputy simply wants to throw around the idea of having emergency legislation so that he can utter the word "emergency" as often as he possibly can in the course of this question. What we are doing is actually addressing the problem. We are delivering solutions. The Deputies opposite have no solutions and no proposals other than attack.

Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh is next. Could we have order, please?

The Government will not attack the problem.