The housing crisis has been developing and, indeed, escalating since about 2011. It is interesting that there has been approximately a 400% increase in the number of families sleeping in emergency or temporary accommodation for the homeless since October 2014. That is a rise from 800 families in that situation to 2,177 in 2016.

In 2012, we only had an average of eight new families presenting as homeless in Dublin every month, but that rose to 40 families per month in 2014, and has risen to 70 per month in the first half of this year. Clearly, therefore, the situation is getting worse year after year. For far too long the last government denied the existence of a crisis and only belatedly declared it a national emergency. It published many strategies which were lacking in detail, implementation and execution in terms of their impact on building new houses. For example, fewer than 274 new social houses were constructed in 2015, and only 28 of those were directly built by local authorities.

The Committee on Housing and Homelessness, chaired by Deputy John Curran, did a lot of good cross-party work in coming up with solutions. The Minister has announced his response today. My key question to the Taoiseach concerns the execution, administrative and statutory capacity to deliver the scale of houses required to meet the challenges. Very few council houses were built by councils in 2015 and 2016 to date, yet we are now looking in the plan at up to 47,000 new social houses. One must question the current capacity of the system to deliver that number.

Is it not the case that a separate statutory institution or agency is required with wide-ranging powers to drive home house building and deal with what is, by any yardstick, a national emergency?

Anybody who listened in this morning to "Morning Ireland" will have heard that we have had children living in hotels in Dublin in recent years, the impact of which on families, mothers, fathers and children was eloquently and graphically articulated. It is a true blight on our society. Notwithstanding all the strategies in the world that we publish, I am concerned about the capacity to execute delivery of this plan. Is the Taoiseach satisfied that the statutory administrative capacity to deliver it exists?

As we speak, the Minister with responsibility for housing is attending with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and others at the formal launch of the Government's housing action plan and so the Deputy's question is very pertinent and appropriate.

We have made no secret that the issue of providing accommodation and proper housing for people, both social and affordable, and dealing with homelessness is a key priority of Government. That is why €5.3 billion is being provided, with 47,000 houses to be provided by 2021. Obviously, execution of the plan is an important point. The consultation with the entire spectrum of interested parties has been thorough. I commended Deputy John Curran and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing and Homelessness on the report they produced. There is an appendix at the back of the plan dealing with each proposal brought forward by the Oireachtas committee, which is right and proper because these formed part of the detailed conversations and discussions that were held by the committee on this matter. The plan contains five pillars. It will be debated in the House this evening and tomorrow, during which time Deputies from all sides and all parties will have an opportunity to comment on it.

It is important to note that in recent years, local authorities have not measured up in the building of social housing to the extent needed. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, has looked at this carefully and has provided local authorities with a €200 million fund for access to sites that are currently inaccessible, either by bridge or road and to allow councils to design their own schemes in respect of certain conditions being applied. He has also provided for expedited capacity for An Bord Pleanála to allow it deal directly with applications that are usually first lodged with the local authorities and then transferred to An Bord Pleanála, such that in a situation where there is no further requirement for information, an answer will be given one way or the other inside 18 weeks. This is a serious attempt, following serious discussions by Government, to deal with this matter.

The first pillar of the plan on housing and homeless deals with homelessness. As the Minister, Deputy Coveney, has pointed out everybody should read the long and detailed first chapter of the plan because of the impact of homelessness. It is not appropriate that families and children in particular would be in inappropriate accommodation, bed and breakfast establishments or hotels. Obviously, the plan is set out in detail and is not only costed but timelined. It will be overseen by the Cabinet sub-committee and monitored carefully by the Minister. It is a case now of seeing if local authorities can measure up to the challenge they have been given with the resources they have been supplied with.

The question is whether the Taoiseach blames the local authorities for the mess of the past five years or their inability to get to grips with it as it continued to grow. I recall being in the House for Leaders' Questions during which the Government denied for a long time that there was a problem. The Focus Ireland statistics in regard to homelessness among children increased in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. It was a market-led approach and we were told the market would correct but it did not. We got the same response to rent allowance for three years. The Government told us there was no way it was going to increase rent allowance. There was an ideological resistance to it. At long last the rent allowance has been increased. Following engagement, discussions, party conferences and so on, it has happened.

I do not think it is fair to blame the local authorities.

Yes, they need to be looked at as well but it is a scandal that there are any empty houses in local authority housing stock given the emergency. It is incredible. Deputy Cowen submitted a freedom of information request. There are still 2,700 empty local authority houses throughout the country. In the name of God, does anybody realise that there is an urgency and an emergency out there? There are people coming to our clinics who would take those houses in the morning, but what does the Government do? It puts a limit on 30,000 houses, over and above which a local authority must seek permission. The local authority must go through an eight-stage process, which has reduced to four stages. Local authority officials are telling me that this has made it worse. The Taoiseach needs to cut through a lot of this. I put it to him that given the emergency with which we are dealing, we need national administrative and statutory capacity to knock heads together and get delivery. That is the only way it is going to happen.

The plan will be debated in the Dáil today and tomorrow. It is important to say that local authorities have performed very indifferently in many cases. Some are better than others. However, they were not responsible for the complete collapse of the housing sector. We know what happened to the construction sector in general. Obviously, many builders went out of business while many others emigrated and the economy did not have the capacity to develop these things.

All these issues are being looked at in great detail by the Minister and his officials across Government, not just in one Department. This is also to address the unacceptable number of families in emergency accommodation and involves looking at moderating rental and purchase price inflation, particularly in urban areas. We are aware of this. There was never a denial of the fact that there was a problem. There was always an acceptance and understanding that the construction sector had collapsed from building 90,000 houses down to fewer than 10,000. There is also the issue of addressing the affordability gap for many households wishing to purchase their own homes. The Minister will refer to opportunities to deal with that which will present themselves later. Other issues include the rental sector, void units and empty houses throughout the country that could be purchased. The Minister has addressed all of these issues in considerable detail through the five pillars, and I hope Members will give their views during the discussion today and tomorrow. It is a genuine attempt to sort this out once and for all.