Last evening, the Department of Housing, Community and Local Government published the monthly figures outlining the number of citizens homeless across the State. The manner in which the figures were released is deeply disappointing and, in fact, shocking. The Minister delayed their publication and then quietly posted them on the Department’s website late in the evening, with no press release and when media were focused on the all-Ireland dialogue on Brexit, in an effort to try to brush the bad news under the carpet perhaps.

The figures are bad news. We might have been forgiven for thinking that things could not get worse but there has been yet another increase in the number of individuals, families and children without homes. In that context, 4,283 adults, 1,173 families, and 2,426 children were sleeping in emergency accommodation in the month of September. These figures do not include the hidden homeless, those that sofa surf or those that are refused access to emergency accommodation. Every day, more people are presenting as homeless. Home repossessions, landlords selling houses in which tenants are living, spiralling rents and family breakdown are the key reasons. The majority of people coming to my constituency office are seeking help because of increases in rents and an inability to afford the massive hikes that landlords are demanding. All the while, more and more people are becoming homeless. There are tens of thousands of citizens and families who live in absolute fear, in terror of a hike in their rent that might push them into homelessness. It is a crisis beyond comprehension and yet the Government and Fianna Fáil have consistently refused to tackle and stop outrageous rent increases. The Government has voted against Sinn Féin’s rent certainty proposals twice, namely, here in the Dáil in June and in the Seanad last month. The Government’s record on providing homes is abysmal. In the Tánaiste's constituency, just two social houses have been brought into the system since 2011. Despite all the talk of understanding the situation and all the high profile launches, the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Coveney, like the former Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, is failing to take the urgent action needed to keep people in their homes and out of emergency accommodation.

We need solutions and we need them now. We cannot wait. Not one more family and not one more child should be made homeless. Will the Tánaiste commit to the single biggest step that could stop people falling into homelessness, that is, rent control linked to the consumer price index? The Government could do this today if it wanted, there is nothing stopping it. Will the Tánaiste do it?

It is not tolerable that in Ireland today families and children are living in emergency accommodation. That is why dealing with the housing supply issue and the homelessness facing families is a priority for this Government. That is why we are doubling the resources allocated to deal with this issue next year. These statistics refer to a period just two months before the action plan published by the Minister, Deputy Coveney. As the Minister stated this morning, it will take time to deliver all the actions in the homelessness and housing strategy. I take the Deputy's point that, in the meantime, families are facing daily and weekly challenges in terms of their housing needs, but the action plan does provide for solutions. Already, local authorities are buying premises. The Deputy has heard the numbers. It is a huge increase on what was done last year. The number of vacant properties being brought back into use has increased across the entire local authority sector to ensure that more housing is available. There is a plan, as the Deputy knows, and it is operational now. I am sure she heard the Minister refer this morning to the number of units that will be available. I believe he said that 380 rapid build houses will be under construction by the end of the year. All of that will make a difference to the families about whom Deputy McDonald spoke.

That is the reason the various other actions are being taken also, including the €40 million increase in funding for homeless services from €70 million to €98 million in 2017; the work in examining the rental sector and recommendations that will be made later this year to provide more stability in that sector; the changes in the rent supplement scheme, about which the Deputy knows; and acquiring vacant houses, as I have already mentioned. A series of actions is being taken and it will take time for those actions to deliver new homes, but every effort is being made by the Minister, his Department and local authorities. A new planning process will come on-stream to ensure more rapid build of estates also. Every action is being taken to deal with what the Deputy rightly describes as a most serious situation, which is recognised by Government. The actions we have taken illustrate how very seriously we take this situation.

The Tánaiste said that dealing with this crisis will take time. She has had six years, yet the crisis deepens. The Tánaiste claims that every effort is being made to resolve the crisis. That is just not true: it is incorrect. In fact, she has refused to deliver rent certainty by linking that to the consumer price index. That is what needs to happen. Everybody sitting here knows that. She could do that in the morning, but she has failed to do it.

There are 189,000 vacant homes across the State, 40,000 of which are in Dublin. Where else in the world would we find that situation on the one hand and thousands of children in emergency accommodation on the other? Every effort has not been made to address that. Despite all the crocodile tears, priority has not been given to resolving the housing crisis. The Tánaiste grandly announced the doubling of resources as though that was the answer. She knows well that in doubling the resources she is simply undoing the damage done when she took office in 2011, bringing it back to that level. My question is specifically about rent certainty. The Tánaiste has had time. She said she wants to make every effort. When will she introduce rent certainty linked to the consumer price index? I want a direct answer to that question.

I remind the House that there has been a public consultation phase regarding the rental sector. That began on 24 October.

It focuses on four key areas: bringing greater tenure in rent certainty to landlords and tenants, maintaining existing levels of rental stock and encouraging investment in additional supply, improving the quality and management of rental accommodation and broadening and strengthening the role of the PRTB to provide its services more effectively and empower tenants and landlords. Those are the various actions that the Minister will be undertaking.

Let me make a point to Deputy McDonald in relation to sustainable exits from homelessness. There have been already this year 1,350 families who have benefitted who have moved out of homelessness into sustainable accommodation in the first six months of 2016. Progress is being made. There is huge demand out there. Clearly, if this Government had not taken the actions that it has taken to improve the economy then there would not be the funding to take the actions which it is taking which will make a difference but which will take time in relation to the housing market and the supply.