The appalling human impact of the homelessness crisis was revealed on RTE last night in "My Homeless Family". The unacceptable impact on families and children in particular was laid bare in this city and across the country. The programme was made possible by the bravery and dignity of the three families involved. There was Erica and her daughter; Sandra and Brendan; and Melissa. With great courage and dignity, they revealed the depressing and very dangerous nature and reality of homelessness in Ireland, particularly the reality of emergency accommodation in commercial hotels and unacceptable bedsits across the country. They put a brave human face on the statistics and anybody watching would have been truly shocked by what was revealed in that reality. It offends any sense of common decency and represents a defining indictment of the Government's neglect and misguided policies on this issue over the past number of years that have allowed this national emergency to develop.

Over the past three years, the Government has been warned repeatedly by all the non-governmental organisations dealing with homelessness, from the Peter McVerry Trust to the Simon Community to Threshold to Focus Ireland, that its policies were wrong and that the crisis was escalating. In 2012, we were looking at eight new families on average becoming homeless per month. This increased to 40 families per month in 2014 and between 65 to 75 families per month in the first half of 2015 - about three per day - with nothing being done.

In 2012, the Government sowed the seeds of this crisis by putting limits on rent supplement. We saw that last night. One of the families was driven into homelessness because rent supplement lagged so far behind the market rents. There has been a explosion of rents in Dublin and throughout the country in recent years.

The number of vacant houses lying idle is still 3,000. There is no urgency to get them filled by families who should not be in hotels but in those houses. At budget time, the Minister for Finance announced that NAMA was going to build 20,000 houses, only 2,000 of which were to be local authority houses. He should have insisted that 10,000 houses from NAMA would be social houses and instructed NAMA to do so. NAMA sold a massive number of properties to vulture funds but there is nothing for social housing in its construction plan.

Did the Taoiseach see the programme? Is he ashamed of the fact that well over 1,500 children are in emergency accommodation of the type we saw last night in the RTE programme? Will he change policy on rent supplement, which would be a practical move? Threshold told the Government that its policy on rent supplement is driving vulnerable families into homelessness. Will he change that policy? Will he instruct NAMA to at least implement a 50-50 split and build 10,000 social houses out of the 20,000 it says it will build? Will he move to eliminate the scandal of local authority houses lying idle while the nation must watch vulnerable families stay in hotel accommodation for well over a year and two years in some cases?

I thank Deputy Martin for his question. Obviously, the stories of Emily, Ryan, Preston and Parker are not the kind of stories one wants to see on television or indeed hear about. The reason for the real problem with housing is the total collapse of the construction sector just a few years ago, which was the most severely impacted sector and which is taking the longest to get back on its feet, as it were. A total of 123 complaints were received about emergency accommodation. I understand that all these complaints were dealt with appropriately.

Not for the first time, Deputy Martin mentioned the question of increasing rent supplement. The real problem is the supply of houses. Increasing rent supplement would only exacerbate the pressure on the existing housing stock. I have been through this with Deputy Martin before. He is aware that under the tenancy-specific agreement, where a landlord pressurises a tenant to leave, the facility exists between the Department of Social Protection and the tenant and landlord to deal with that kind of issue. A total of 5,800 families were assisted under that scheme in 2015. A total of 6,000 families were helped by the housing assistance payment, HAP, programme in 2015. These are people who are under pressure but who are working. The assistance given to them allowed them to remain in their homes.

A total of 300 sites throughout the country are being worked on and are in various stages of construction. The Deputy is aware that more than €3 billion has been provided by the Government for social housing between now and 2021. Targets and moneys have been given to every council which have been told to get on with it. The Deputy is aware of the changes in the regulations issued by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Minister of State at the same Department. A total of 2,000 people were assisted last year, mostly in Dublin, in respect of voided buildings that have been brought back into proper condition for people to live in. They were more immediate requirements to deal with the existing stock of apartments or houses that needed to be reconstructed. This is a significant number in itself. The next stage is for the local authorities who have been given the money, instructions and targets to get on with dealing with the supply of housing. This is all social housing. The private sector, NAMA and others will provide housing that will come on the market for those in the private housing sector. Obviously, the demand is increasing there as well because of the extent of the employment that has been created and that will be created.

I have not seen the programme but I have heard the comments and read the reports about it. This is not acceptable. I commend the people who spoke out. Obviously, they tell their story very clearly but I must say that the actions being taken by the Government in having 5,800 families assisted through the supplementary allowance scheme, 6,000 families helped last year by the housing assistance payment, 300 sites being worked on in various locations throughout the country and 2,000 taken off the housing list last year speak for themselves in respect of the extent of the challenge and how the Government has had to rebuild a construction sector that had collapsed entirely.

The reason given by the Taoiseach is not the reason. He allowed this crisis to escalate. He allowed it to become the full-blown national emergency it is. I gave him the figures. Eight families on average per month were becoming homeless in 2012, 40 per month in 2014 and 75 per month in 2015. A total of 90 families became homeless during one month last year. This is nearly three families per day becoming homeless. The Taoiseach kept on throwing out figures that mean nothing to anybody. Twelve local authorities did not build a single social house last year and they built 1,400 in five years. This could not put any dent in any social housing list. The Government cannot even get modular houses built. They were announced with a fanfare three or four months ago but, again, nothing has happened.

The Government stands indicted on rent supplement.

Will the Deputy put his question?

In December 2014, Bob Jordan from Threshold said, "...keeping Rent Supplement limits below market rents has done nothing to dampen rent increases. All it has done is drive vulnerable families into homelessness." These are people at the coalface who told the Government years ago that the rent supplement changes in 2012 introduced by the Tánaiste were wrong.

Could the Deputy put his question?

She got it wrong. She saved €55 million by doing it, the worst €55 million ever saved in any Estimate because it drove vulnerable families out of the rental market and into homelessness.

Will the Deputy please co-operate with the Chair and put his question?

That is why we have the escalating spectacle of families with children in commercial hotels with all the difficulties and challenges this entails. I am not the only person saying this. Every organisation at the coalface has repeatedly asked the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste to change their position on rent supplement and they have not done so. I also asked the Taoiseach, who might come back to me on it, because he did not answer the question when I first asked it-----

Will the Deputy put his question? We are way over time.

Will the Taoiseach now change tack on NAMA and instruct it that a minimum of 10,000 houses out of the 20,000 houses it is to build should be social housing of one form or another because it has a social remit?

Deputy Martin says that figures do not mean anything to him, that they are meaningless. For his information, 5,800 families received a supplementary allowance increase last year under the tenancy scheme introduced by the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection. A total of 6,000 families were helped under the housing assistance payment. A total of 300 sites are being built on at the moment.

The Government changed the scheme.

There are 300 sites being built on and 2,000 people were taken off the housing list by being re-accommodated in places that were voided and neglected and not habitable.

The Government has only changed the name of the scheme.

How many went on it?

They have been recategorised.

How many went on it in the past five years?

Would the Deputy hold on a second. Is he the Leader here? Has he taken over the leadership?

Deputy Martin does not want to recognise the fact.

I do but I do not like meeting families who have spent Christmas in hotels. I just do not like meeting them and I have met them. Of course I want to recognise it and get them out of hotels.

The Deputy does not want to recognise the fact that the construction sector collapsed completely and has had to be rebuilt from the ground up. It is literally taking the longest of all the sectors to recover. Everybody admits that.

The Taoiseach does not get it.

Where is Deputy Alan Kelly in all of this? Is he playing footsie with Delaney?

The Exchequer spend here is up to €70 million, a 56% increase on what it used to be. I have given Deputy Martin the figures.

The Taoiseach said he would do it last year.

He mentioned modular housing. Yes, the Government did commit to building 500 units of modular housing, warm, comfortable and easily built, the first 150 to be delivered here in Dublin but there were objections to the first ones being built. There are a further 350 to come on stream.

We told the Taoiseach that would happen.

These are areas where the Government has a serious programme and is following it. Yes, it is catch-up but it is catching up.

It is going nowhere.

I do not like to see a situation where people are in those circumstances.

It is going nowhere.

It is going nowhere in a hurry.