The Private Residential Tenancies Board has confirmed that the cost of renting continues to spiral out of control. At the end of May, the average cost of renting a home in Dublin was €1,454 per month, which is a staggering €17,500 per year. That is higher than the highest point reached in 2007. Outside Dublin, while rents are below the 2007 peak, they are still rising. I believe we can agree that these rents are scandalous. Due to the failure of previous Governments to ensure an adequate supply of social and affordable housing, more people are finding themselves reliant on - indeed, trapped in - the private rental sector. How is a low-income family expected to keep pace with such rents? How are working families expected to pay these rents and save for a deposit on their own homes at the same time?

A report from the Homeless Agency shows that spiralling rents is one of the principal causes of family homelessness. Scores of families will sleep in emergency accommodation tonight because they cannot afford their rent. Across the State, rent supplement and housing assistance payments lag considerably behind market rents. Last year, the former Minister with responsibility for housing, Deputy Alan Kelly, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, were locked in a bitter row over how to deal with rising rents. The Government set its face against rent certainty. It refused to link rents to the consumer price index. Instead, it introduced measures which not only have not worked, but have made matters worse.

The Committee on Housing and Homelessness has received repeated and strong calls in its hearings and submissions for the introduction of rent certainty and for increases in rent supplement and housing assistance payment levels. Will the Government include rent certainty in its action plan on housing which is to be published in August? Second, will the Government ensure there are increases in rent supplement and housing assistance payments to ensure that no family is made homeless due to an inability to pay its rent?

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is no secret that the crisis in housing is the biggest issue on the Government's agenda. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, has committed to an action plan for housing within the first 100 days. He has consulted widely with all of the interests, including those referred to by the Deputy, in the preparation of that work. The Committee on Housing and Homelessness is due to report soon with its input into this debate.

In terms of the response, many worthwhile initiatives have been put in place in the past, although obviously more must be done. I agree with the Deputy that there is inadequate supply of both social and private housing. Much of the rental sector is in the private sector, and the rents the Deputy referred to in the reports are entirely in the private sector. This is a supply issue and we must see an acceleration of supply both in the social housing programme and in the private sector. That will be a big feature of what emerges from this.

There is also the issue of the adequacy of rent supplement. The Department of Social Protection has a protocol in place under which 1,000 families have been assisted in getting higher rent supplement with a higher ceiling to avoid the pressures the Deputy has described. With regard to the housing assistance payment, a 50% uplift of the payment is being piloted in Dublin and that is making an impact for families who are threatened with becoming homeless. It is working in some cases but, obviously, there will have to be a tight review to assess its impact. This area is getting a huge level of Government attention. There have already been four or five meetings of the Cabinet committee on housing at which all of the issues are being raised.

Rent certainty was dealt with in a Bill that was passed by the Oireachtas, under which new rules governing rent certainty have been provided. They provide for a more extended period of notice and there can only be increases in rents every two years. Those provisions are in place and will be monitored in terms of policy in this area.

The Minister is correct that it is no secret that there is a crisis in housing. It is equally no secret that this is a Government-made crisis. It is also no secret that it took a considerable amount of time for the Government to catch up and recognise the scale of the crisis.

It is no surprise that the Minister has not answered my questions, so I will put them again. Will the action plan on housing contain a commitment to rent certainty and increases in rent supplement and housing assistance payments? The Committee on Housing and Homelessness has met. It is a cross-party committee and it received reams of submissions from experts across the board. I seek a commitment from the Minister today that rent certainty and increases in the rent supplement and housing assistance payments will be contained in the action plan. Should the committee in its final report recommend rent certainty, a link to the consumer price index and increases in those payments, will the Government honour the report, listen to the committee and ensure the recommendations are included in the action plan?

In respect of what has caused the housing crisis, it is important to remember that misplaced policies caused a construction boom of unprecedented levels where we built 90,000 houses and had a massive property bubble. This bubble collapsed with all the ensuing consequences, such as the damage to people's lives and the public finances. We have been living with that ever since and no system is more broken than that relating to housing provision. The system is simply broken and must be rebuilt from scratch.

The Minister will look at all views coming from all parties. The housing action plan has not yet come to Government for consideration so I have not seen the elements of it. The committee's recommendations have not yet to come to Government. The Deputy can rest assured that the Government will look at all elements.

The rent issue is about supply. We have inadequate supply and that is what the report today showed. It showed that the number of properties becoming available for rental has declined at a time when there is an increase in demand. This has simply put pressure on rents and that imbalance must be corrected before we resolve this crisis.