Every day families are being made homeless. Thousands of children will sleep in unsuitable emergency accommodation tonight. Home repossessions, rising rents and a shortage of council housing are the causes of family homelessness. Councils not only have housing waiting lists, they now also have waiting lists for emergency accommodation. Families are being forced to sleep rough, overhold on their leases or move in with family and friends. A huge number of those who find themselves in this awful position are at work.

Let me give an example. Máire is a single mother with two children. She works full-time in a low-paid job in retail. Unable to afford child care, her mother minds the children while she is in work. She is not eligible for rent supplement and cannot find a landlord who will take the housing assistance payment. Máire's rent has increased by 20% in the past two years. The crunch came for her when her landlord served her with a €100 rent increase this year. She told him she simply did not have the money and he replied with a notice to quit.

She looked frantically for alternative accommodation but could not find anything affordable. She presented to her local council homeless section but was turned away because all of the hostels and hotels were full. This case is not an isolated one; it happens day after day. A new survey from Co-operative Housing Ireland indicates that 32% of tenants across the State live in fear of losing their homes. In Dublin, 50% of tenants are fearful of becoming homeless.

The only meaningful solution that will allay this fear is to link market rents to the consumer price index - in other words, to provide rent certainty. These families are being made homeless because of the Government's failure to introduce rent certainty. The Minister has urged others to demonstrate leadership. I urge him to demonstrate leadership and tell us when the Government will provide the rent certainty that families like Máire's desperately need.

It is not acceptable that in Ireland in 2015, we have families, including children, living in emergency accommodation. The case the Deputy raises, or any other such case, is simply unacceptable. The Deputy talks about the only meaningful solution. As she well knows, the only meaningful solution to this undoubted problem that exists - nobody denies that it exists - is that we actually resume as quickly as possible, as we are doing, a home building programme in the State, one that was abandoned disgracefully seven or eight years ago, where local authorities withdrew, and in fact were encouraged to withdraw, from the building of social housing. That will allow us to provide the homes that individuals and families need and in that way ensure we address the issue of homelessness. That is the only meaningful solution in my view. That is the leadership the Government is showing and needs to show in respect of this issue of the housing problem and the associated homeless factor that we have at the moment.

We have increased funding, as the Deputy will be aware. We have allocated approximately €2.2 billion for social housing in the coming period. We have increased Exchequer support to address homelessness, in particular for emergency accommodation, by €17 million. Exchequer funding in that regard is now of the order of €70 million, an increase of 56% since 2014.

We have a cold weather action plan for the winter months in the Dublin area to assist people who are at risk of sleeping rough. Additional beds are being brought on line. We are addressing the emergency element of the problem and the Minister, Deputy Kelly, is doing that effectively. That is what leadership is about and that is what we are doing and what we intend to continue to do.

Demonstrating leadership means having a range of policy approaches to address, first, the immediate emergency edge of the problem relating to homelessness, particularly in our cities, which is what we are doing. In the medium term, we need to get going as quickly as possible, as we are doing, with a social housing building programme. That is what we are addressing.

On rent certainty, colleagues will be aware that the Minister, Deputy Kelly, is bringing legislation through the Houses in respect of the rental sector. Additional certainty is being afforded by that legislation so that we can do as much as we can with the legislative measures we put in place to ensure that people who are in rental accommodation are not in fear of rent increases on a regular basis and that can only happen over the new period of two years.

It sounds a bit woolly.

Those are measures we are taking.

It is all woolly.

Very woolly.

We are also addressing deposit protection and other changes are taking place in respect of rent certainty to protect people in rental accommodation. It may be a subject of mirth for Deputy Cowen but is a serious issue for the people affected and is a serious issue for the Government, which is why we are addressing it now.

The Government has not shown that for the past four years.

It is not acceptable for the Minister to say to families, such as Máire's, that their predicament is not acceptable when the Government has a hand in creating their misery. That is the truth. The coalition has been in government for almost five years and its record on social housing build is pathetic. I am shocked that the Minister and his colleagues repeatedly give out that message as though they had revolutionised social housing provision - far from it.

What it has allowed is a situation where families, including children, sleep in bed and breakfasts, hostels and hotels, if they are lucky. What it has allowed is a situation where children try to make it to school every day for weeks on end from those hotels, if they are lucky. What it has allowed is a situation where people sleep on sofas or in their mothers' box rooms for months or years. What it has allowed is fear in a whole generation not alone that they will not own their own home but that they will be priced out of the rented accommodation on which they rely, the place they call home.

I ask the Minister to clarify this because I am curious to know. Last night the Government Members voted down Sinn Féin legislation on the issue of rent certainty and the prevention of homelessness. Revealingly enough, most of the Minister's colleagues did not consider it worth their while to show up for the debate. How does the Minister answer Máire who needs rent certainty and all those tenants - the figures do not lie - 50% of whom are in Dublin and more than 30% are across the State who currently fear they will be priced out of their homes? When will they get rent certainty or has the Government given up the ghost on that? This is on its watch and it is its responsibility. The Minister should not talk to others about leadership when he so clearly fails in that regard.

We can have a debate about how the problem happened.

No, we cannot.

Answer the question.

If that is the question-----

Order, please.

If that is the question the Deputy wants to ask, when she talks about the misery and how this was caused, we can do that-----

We want to know what the Government is doing.

-----but I do not believe that would be productive.

Please-----

We know the housing crisis came about.

The Government should fix it so.

We know what happened and we know where we are now.

The Minister knows everything, bar the solution.

What we are about is solutions.

No, it is not.

That is what this Government is about.

We need actions.

What we are about is actually delivering solutions and delivering action.

No, it is not.

Fix it so.

What about the Tesco advertisement?

I do not know the exact individual circumstances of the person the Deputy mentioned. I have no doubt the case she raised is a genuine one and she has authenticated what she has said today. What I would say to that lady and others in terms of what we are dealing with-----

The Minister is in the Dáil not in court.

There is no need for personal abuse. Let us just keep to the debate. What we are dealing with here is a Government that is actually addressing the situation somebody like Máire is facing.

It is not.

I will give an example of what I would say to her if she were here. I would say the Government-----

You are a Minister and not a senior counsel for the moment.

Deputy-----

-----will ensure that new houses are built and there will be an opportunity for her and her family to avail of one of those houses.

When?

The Government is ensuring that local authorities have systems in place whereby-----

He is a Minister, not a senior counsel.

Can we hear the reply, please?

-----if she wishes to apply or approach her local authority, her individual situation will be addressed in a sensitive way.

Give me a break.

The Minister has not answered.

If she were concerned about rent certainty-----

Go back to the Bar.

-----I would tell her what was in the legislation we are bringing through the House to bring about rent certainty to ensure she has protection in her house.

There is no rent certainty in the plan.

The Government is running out of time.

He is stuck in Tesco.

It is true we do not have the complete solution for every individual faced with this situation-----

The Government has no solution.

The Government does not even have a-----

-----today, because as the Members opposite must accept, one cannot produce houses in a day or a week.

Nor five years.

Five years.

Order please.

What one can do, however, is ensure the funding is put in place to deliver those houses, ensure the money is there and bring it forward.

When?

One can have measures, such as modular housing, which the lady in question could well avail of.

A cottage up in the clouds.

People cannot avail of modular housing.

It is a temporary solution.

One could have measures in the rent legislation, which we are producing in this House.

People can have a hotel room.

Every time I mention another measure, I get heckled-----

The Minister should go back to the Bar.

-----because the Deputies opposite know that these are practical, serious solutions to a problem that they just want to talk about.

The Minister is in power.

There are no solutions in anything the Minister said.

He is in Tesco land.

That is a disgraceful position from the Labour Party. It is pathetic. I am not interested in Fianna Fáil.