Yesterday, I asked the Taoiseach if he had seen the RTE film "My Homeless Family". I was inundated with calls yesterday from people who were quite shocked by the revelations about the reality of homelessness in Ireland today, and particularly the plight of families in hotels. I do not know if the Taoiseach has seen the programme but it is important that he should do so. Yesterday, he dismissed my arguments on rent allowance, which many of the agencies are saying has driven many vulnerable families into homelessness.

The Taoiseach was also asked a specific question concerning NAMA's plans to build 20,000 houses. He was asked if he would instruct NAMA to ensure that 10,000 of those would be social houses. For some time, Deputy Barry Cowen has argued the case for building social houses and to tell NAMA to do so. When one looks at the sale of 442 apartments at Tallaght Cross West to a major international real estate investor for €83 million, it is extraordinary. It illustrates the bankruptcy in terms of the attitude of the State and the Government to homelessness and the lack of any urgency to get to grips with it. Those 442 apartments were sold for about €100,000 each, which is €90,000 less than the modular homes the Taoiseach cannot get built at the moment. Apparently, NAMA offered those apartments to the National Housing Agency and local authorities, but they decided to take up only 65 of them. Meanwhile, 1,600 children are in emergency accommodation of the kind we saw on the programme earlier this week.

Who is in charge? Why was the offer of apartments not taken up? Why did the State not buy them and get the families out of damp hotel rooms and bed-sits?

A question, please.

It illustrates in one story how this Government does not get what it is like for people to be in hotel rooms all over this city and across the country. There was a great opportunity to do something there with one, two and three-bedroom apartments at €100,000 each, rather than the €190,000 for modular homes. It is time the Government understood the urgency of this crisis and its impact on families. It has been going on for three years. Threshold and Focus Ireland warned the Taoiseach about this.

We have been legally advised that the Taoiseach can instruct NAMA that half the 20,000 houses it is building should be social ones. That would have a huge impact in taking people out of the misery we all saw on RTE on Monday night.

The Deputy raised this question yesterday in respect of the television programme. I pointed out to him that the disastrous state he left the country in meant that the entire construction sector and the building business has collapsed.

And soon forgotten.

Please.

I pointed out to Deputy Martin that the Government set about dealing with the scale of that problem by dealing with voided units, reconstruction of places that were not habitable-----

Answer the question.

Would you stay quiet, please?

-----and a variety of schemes to prevent people from becoming homeless and being put on the housing list. These include the housing assistance programme and the tenancy agreement for increased rent supplement, which have helped thousands of people. Given that the economy is recovering, and it is important that we keep the recovery going, the Government has put €3 billion on the table for social housing to build 117,000 units by 2020. We have given local authority chief executives money, objectives, targets, facilities and the wherewithal to get on and do this.

Week after week the Deputy comes in here, but he has forgotten any sense of fiscal responsibility. If he wants to take another €2 billion off public services and put it into NAMA housing, then let me hear that proposition from him. He seems to think that he can magically produce another 10,000 social houses out of NAMA but it does not work that way.

Of course, one can have a legal opinion on everything. We all empathise with the people whose children are in hotel rooms, bed and breakfast facilities or other emergency accommodation. Among all those challenging cases, the 123 complaints received in respect of that programme were all dealt with. I note the-----

The programme was not about those complaints.

Please. The Taoiseach does not need any support.

Deputy Martin emasculated the Bill for social housing provisions. Does he remember? I remember it. I have been here long enough. He emasculated the Bill.

Will Deputy McGinley please let the Taoiseach explain his position?

Deputy Martin is being hypocritical. He emasculated that Bill.

You will stay quiet or else you will leave the Chamber.

I note this morning that not only are there objections to the modular housing that Deputy Martin is proposing but that other such schemes have also been objected to. There is a legal process to be gone through here. Deputy Martin wants instant houses. The Government has put public money on the table for every local authority. It has given them their objectives and targets and has told them to get on with this. We are providing help in respect of the housing assistance programme and supplementary welfare, which has helped 5,800 people. Some 2,000 have been housed who were on the housing list last year and are being placed in voided units that are now renovated and comfortable.

If Deputy Martin thinks he can suddenly direct NAMA to put another €2 billion into social housing, let me hear that proposition. The Deputy should tell me what facilities he will take that money from.

People are fed up with the Taoiseach-----

And they are fed up with you.

Would you please stay quiet?

-----and the deliberate decision never to answer questions that are put to him. In 2012, there were eight families presenting as homeless. In 2014, that number had risen to 40 under the Taoiseach's watch. In 2015, it went to 75, and it rose to 90 in one month last year. This is on the Taoiseach's watch. Threshold, Focus Ireland, Simon and the Peter McVerry Trust all warned the Taoiseach about homelessness and the homeless children in this city.

You did not know about it until now?

Will you please stay quiet?

I am sorry, a Cheann Comhairle. He annoys me intensely.

That is the point I am getting at, Taoiseach. There were 442 apartments out in Tallaght West which the Taoiseach could have directed and ensured were bought.

A question, please.

The Taoiseach could have done that but he chose not to.

It is your fault.

Please. The Taoiseach will answer the question.

He chose not to spend €83 million. He goes on about modular homes which would cost €190,000. These apartments were sold for €100,000.

Will the Deputy please put a question? We are over time.

The Taoiseach clearly has not watched the television programme to which I referred but I ask him to do so. He might then get a sense of urgency about this issue. He is out of touch with the reality of what life is like on the ground for many vulnerable families in this country. They do not get fairness in terms of treatment because the Taoiseach's philosophy is laissez-faire and to let the market decide.

That is the Deputy's attitude.

Rent allowances for vulnerable families are cut, allowing them to fall into poverty. The Taoiseach will not direct NAMA to build 10,000 houses.

I ask the Taoiseach to respond.

The Taoiseach could direct NAMA to build 10,000 houses.

The Deputy's party could have done it when there was plenty of money available.

Would the Deputy please mind?

In the budget, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, declared that NAMA would build 20,000 houses.

The Deputy is way over time.

Now the Taoiseach and his colleagues are saying only 10% of them should be social houses.

I ask the Taoiseach to respond.

I am simply saying-----

The Deputy should resume his seat.

----- the urgency of the problem demands an urgent and effective response, not the failure we have had, with local authorities building nothing in recent years. No social housing has been built in recent years.

Why?

Deputy Micheál Martin should resume his seat.

I am asking the Taoiseach to direct NAMA that 10,000 be social houses.

There were 100,000 families on housing lists when the Deputy left office.

Is the Deputy the Taoiseach?

I am not.

He might make a better job of it.

Deputy Micheál Martin has no credibility on the economy.

Absolutely none.

The electorate will decide.

When he walked out of here before the general election in 2011-----

He is available and the Taoiseach should debate the matter with him.

The Taoiseach should walk into an RTE studio with him.

-----he left behind a programme, which he has been spouting about around the country and that others have implemented. Let me remind him of some of the stuff the Government of which he was a member included in that programme.

The Taoiseach should tell the people about the things in the Government's programme that it will do.

It included a figure of €3 billion to be paid to Anglo Irish Bank from the taxpayer. It included a figure of an extra €638 million in income tax increases on the taxpayer.

The Taoiseach should debate the matter with Deputy Micheál Martin.

It included a figure of €400 million for water charges without providing any relief for anybody. As the great equaliser, it proposed a cut in the minimum wage.

The Taoiseach should answer the question.

That is the Deputy's credibility on the economy. We have had to rebuild all of the structure. The Deputy has no credibility - zero, zilch, nothing.

The Taoiseach should debate the matter on RTE.

We now have €3 billion of taxpayers' money on the table to build social housing. Deputy Micheál Martin did not answer when I said to him-----

It is the Taoiseach's job to answer questions.

-----that if he wanted to have NAMA build 10,000 units of social housing, he needed to produce €2 billion and tell me the facilities from which he would take it.

I told the Taoiseach what to do.

Every local authority in the country has its target and objectives and money and has been given the go-ahead to build social housing.

Some 10,000 of those houses should be sold to NAMA to be developed in the next five years.

The Government left them high and dry in the past five years.

The Taoiseach just does not care about people who have problems.

There were 2,000 units taken from voids to take people off housing lists last year; 6,000 were helped through the housing assistance programme, while 5,800 were helped through increased rent supplement. I do not accept anything the Deputy says about rebuilding the economy.

Deputies are getting nowhere in shouting at each other. Nobody can hear what anybody else is saying. Will they please allow the leaders to put their questions and the Taoiseach to answer, without interruption?