We have experienced the largest jump in rent since 2007.

She is consistent if nothing else.

Deputy McDonald has the floor.

Ireland is now one of the most expensive places in which to rent in Europe. Last year the average increase in rent was 9.3% - it was 9.7% outside Dublin. Rents have returned almost to the level they were at the peak of the housing bubble. Individuals and families throughout the country are already struggling to keep a roof over their heads and yet the Government is unwilling to intervene in the market unless, of course, it is to give tax breaks and incentives to developers. There are no breaks for ordinary families.

The Government promised rent certainty and rent control. All the Minister, Deputy Kelly, could deliver was a two-year rent freeze, which in reality is just a delayed rent review. It has also resulted in an immediate increase in rent for some. The Government promised investment in social housing. The Minister, Deputy Kelly, boasted of a tenfold increase in social housing build, but let us be clear that is a tenfold increase from 20 houses.

This is a case of far too little and much too late. The reality is that the Labour Party has sided with Fine Gael against struggling families. For families who had hoped to own a home, that hope is fading. Labour promised not to introduce, ironically, water charges, but it did that. Today we hear that the Government intends stopping local authority tenants from having the right to buy their homes if they have not paid the water charge. That is some record.

The Labour Party's approach to housing is like its approach to water charges. It folds and adopts Fine Gael policy. It has failed tenants, it has failed families and its policies have created incredible hardship. Is it not now time to go back to the drawing board and deliver what it promised, which was rent control, rent certainty and security for tenants? Is it not time to revisit the things it promised to block, specifically water charges?

I suppose Sinn Féin could be accused of folding the cards and running back to Westminster on the issue of welfare reform.

Far from it.

That is what it chose to do. Hopefully, from its point of view, it will not hear about it until sometime after the elections in different parts of this island. Deputy McDonald has a bit of a cheek to talk about people folding when Sinn Féin members are the champions of it as they have shown again this week.

The Government backs us.

The only solution to housing in this country, following the huge collapse in building following the difficulties the country had and which now thankfully we are exiting, is to actually build more housing. The heart of the Government's housing proposal is to build more units through a variety of mechanisms. This is under way as we speak in every part of the country. Is it under way as quickly as I would like? Frankly, no. It has taken us a long time to, for instance, regenerate the housing departments in various local authorities that had gone out of business largely because the previous Government relied entirely on rented housing.

No. There were 15,000 social houses.

Right now throughout the country-----

Waffle.

-----there are significant allocations to every local authority to recommence the building of social houses.

Second, we have NAMA committed to building a significant number of affordable and social housing, which has already started. Third, we have the recent announcement of the further investment being provided in respect of a further 1,500 units by the Strategic Investment Fund. All of this means we have under way the biggest housing programme ever undertaken in Ireland

The Tánaiste has gone beyond the beyond altogether.

I understand and I share Sinn Féin's desire to see houses being built, both affordable houses and houses for social housing and for rent, throughout the country. That is a common view shared by everybody in the House. That is what we are actually doing.

I was present this week at a very nice handing-over ceremony in my constituency, where the first set of new houses will be handed over to a number of families before Christmas.

How many?

Forty-four.

Emergency accommodation.

The Tánaiste should put that in her canvass card.

Another seven houses will be handed over after Christmas.

That is about 160 people.

That is in addition to what Deputy McDonald and I discussed on many occasions, namely, ending the practice of voided houses being closed up.

Give me a break. There are 3,000 voids nationally.

In Dublin City Council that has resulted in hundreds of families being housed this year. The Deputy might not check the facts but I invite him to go and check the facts.

I did.

In my area, Fingal County Council has reduced the practice of houses being boarded up-----

The Tánaiste should introduce rent certainty.

The Government has a 30,000 cap.

-----when they become vacant to a very small number, less than 35, but one needs to repair houses and that is all now done within six months.

What about the 30,000 cap?

Please. This is Deputy McDonald's question.

I am happy to say that houses are one of the most important commitments of this Government. We have supplied the funding. I want to see the councillors on all the county councils co-operate with county managers around the country to get houses built.

You want them to do your job.

In some cases councillors have delayed the building of houses-----

Dear God, blame the councillors.

-----through, in some cases, spurious objections to planning and other issues. Everyone agrees with proper planning concerns but some councillors and parties must cut to the chase-----

Labour has no councillors anyway.

-----and co-operate with councils to build houses.

The Tánaiste is happy to say that housing is one of the most important commitments of this Government.

Yes.

I suggest to the Tánaiste that she and her band of merry men from Labour and Fine Gael are the only people who are happy with this issue.

The Deputy should talk to the people who got the houses.

From listening to the Tánaiste's responses this morning the message from Government on variable rate mortgages seems to be to shop around. On the issue of social housing, reference was made to a tenfold increase. Twenty by ten is 200. That is the height and scale of the Government's ambition. The average rent in Dublin now is in excess of €1,400.

That is for a three-bed house.

The Tánaiste's answer to that, it seems, is to turn a blind eye and cross her fingers. She went on at length about voids. There are still 3,000 voids across the State. In other words, the Government's policy in respect of housing is nothing more than waffle.

Hear, hear.

It is recycled statements, rhetoric, the politics of blaming everybody else - councillors, homeless agencies, campaigners - whoever is at hand to off-set the blame, but the Government refuses to take responsibility on these matters.

That is what your people did. Sinn Féin cannot govern its own members.

Take a deep breath, Bernard.

That is the reality, and the Government has set that position out with glorious clarity here today.

I thank the Deputy. Could she ask a question please?

Could the Tánaiste please answer my question, which revolves around rent certainty? Is the Government still captivated by the notion that it cannot interfere in the market?

Are you still captivated by Gerry?

God help the market. Is the Tánaiste still captivated by that logic, the logic of her Fine Gael partners in government or will the Government move to do something substantive that offers a remedy for people who rent, and afford real rent certainty and security for them in their homes?

Go raibh maith agat. The Tánaiste to reply.

The economic content of the argument Deputy McDonald has just put forward is completely absurd.

Really.

It means that however busy the Deputy is, she is not in a position to get familiar with what is happening in housing.

You are deluded.

I regret that.

You are deluded.

If we were talking about market solutions, we would-----

There are thousands of people in emergency accommodation.

-----be looking at the Fianna Fáil solution.

You are deluded.

The Fianna Fáil solution before the party left the pitch was to leave housing to the private market.

Families are living in tents.

We built 15,000 social units. The Government has built 180.

Instead, both Fine Gael and Labour in government got the largest investment programme for housing in the history of the State.

They sat on their hands. The Tánaiste is deluded.

Where is the money for that programme coming from? It is coming from the taxes people in this country are paying and from the country's renewed capacity to borrow-----

No wonder you are at 7%.

----at cheap rates of interest. I do not know why the Deputy is in denial, because all over the country, county councils have been given some of the largest allocations in their individual histories to build more houses for social purposes.

You are deluded, Tánaiste. You are in cuckoo land.

In addition, on the finance side, we have a whole series of initiatives undertaken by NAMA, the NTMA and the strategic investment fund to get affordable housing.

NAMA. Do not go there.

Deputy McDonald should remember that in all of this a very important group of people are the ones who have now been working for a number of years, who are renting but want to buy.

She has gone cuckoo.

Does the Tánaiste live on the same planet as the rest of us?

NAMA is an asset manager. It is not-----

If, for instance, the Deputy were to visit my constituency-----

I regularly visit the Tánaiste's constituency.

-----she would see large numbers of affordable houses now being built.

Look at its title, National Asset Management Agency.

Tánaiste, you are in cuckoo land.

This is Deputy McDonald's question. Please.

You have gone cuckoo, Tánaiste.

Sinn Féin seems to be in denial. We have now provided rent certainty for two years.

You are in la la land.

Rents have gone up.

NAMA is evicting people.

Please. This is-----

You are in la la land.

Are you a baby or are you just acting like a baby?

This is Leaders' Questions. Please. Deputy McDonald has asked a question. The Tánaiste should be allowed to conclude.

Give the man a little bit of music. He needs his afternoon nap.

You are in la la land, missus.

Look at what she believes.

Did Deputy McDonald spend an extra amount of time in the United States and just not have time to visit anywhere in Ireland to see what is happening on the ground? Did she go and look?

Clarity is not your forte.

I invite Deputy McDonald to visit housing estates in Fingal and have a look at the building that is under way.

The Tánaiste might answer the question.

Some of the Independent Members who sit behind Deputy McDonald were so taken with them that they decided to occupy them. There you are.

That is a cop-out.

I call Deputy Thomas Pringle on behalf of the Technical Group.

A comment was made about the Independents.

Could Members please allow Deputy Pringle to ask a question? I have called Deputy Thomas Pringle.

The Tánaiste should withdraw that remark. She made an allegation against the Independents. It is absolutely outrageous.

Let the Independents have their say now. I call Deputy Pringle.