I also want to focus on housing. There have been regular discussions in this House on the issue of social housing and the housing crisis. From intolerable rent increases to enormous social housing waiting lists to growing homelessness, the situation has been grave for some time now. The Tánaiste is correct in that there have been discussions across parties to develop plans to address these issues, and there are other proposals from all of us on the Opposition benches that could and should be taken on. However, the events of Tuesday night surely must shock us all. There is no amount of discussion on housing policy that could inure us to the real impact of families in this country being required to sleep either in Garda stations or in public parks.

Mr. Mike Allen of Focus Ireland has referred to Tuesday night as unprecedented and shocking. He is correct. Some 12 families could not find emergency accommodation in this city. Some 30 children could not be accommodated. Families were sent to Garda stations for their safety. Seven families spent the night in police stations as it was the only way they could find safety for their children. Unsurprisingly, some of the families were concerned about the potential implications of doing so, and so three families slept in Fairview Park and another family slept in Merrion Square. I say slept, but obviously there was no sleep for those families. Everybody in this House would agree unconditionally that that is unacceptable.

A spokesman for the Dublin Region Homeless Executive was quoted in The Irish Times saying that Dublin City Council provides an emergency supply of contingency capacity for families. Clearly that contingency capacity is insufficient. In the meantime, 200,000 homes lie empty. There is plenty of space to accommodate not only the 12 families we spoke about but all those who need accommodation. While the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Coveney, is focused on the Fine Gael leadership debate, this House is still waiting for the vacant homes strategy. We do not know if the Government will consider a vacant home levy to bring 200,000 unused houses back into use. We do not know if the Government will consider the use of compulsory purchase orders for homes that have been vacant for a period of years. We do not even know when the audit of vacant homes will be completed. We do not know if the Government intends to increase the funds to acquire vacant properties. What we do know, shockingly, is that we have families who have spent the night in parks, and that cannot continue. The crisis of family homelessness cannot be allowed to sit side by side with that scale of empty homes. When will we see the vacant homes strategy and what particular assurances will the Tánaiste give us now to ensure we will never again see a repeat of Tuesday night?

The Deputy was in government two years ago.

I want to repeat the point about the extra accommodation that has become available since Tuesday in terms of the emergency contingency capacity. It has doubled for families who present in emergency out of hours.

It is reassuring that not all of the accommodation that has been made available was used last night. Only one of the new additional contingency units was used to accommodate a family. The additional accommodation were available and all the agencies knew this. There was real difficulty on Tuesday, as I have acknowledged, for a variety of reasons including exceptional booking levels in hotels.

I spoke to the Minister this morning and his goal is clearly to move families out of commercial hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation. I have outlined the huge range of initiatives he has undertaken in terms of family facilities. The aim of those initiatives is to make sure that more appropriate accommodation is available for families that present in this situation and have previously been housed in hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation. The budget has been made available, as the Deputy is well aware. A variety of funding mechanisms are in place for buying up more homes. There is a €70 million fund with the Housing Agency to buy houses that are available and are considered suitable. Each local authority has been asked to identify vacant properties. That is a complex situation in terms of who owns the properties, access to them, legal issues and other restrictions on bringing them back into use. Where they belong to local authorities, they of course can be brought back into use.

Every effort is being made to ensure that families get accommodation through the use of the housing assistance payment, HAP, through social builds and through encouraging private supply. All of those initiatives will come more and more into play. I have given the details of the increase of 26% in construction that is under way. An increased number of planning applications also have been submitted. This will ensure that by the end of this year we will see a fairly dramatic increase in supply. It is a very challenging situation. Every resource that is necessary is being provided at a national budgetary level and for local authorities.

Will the Tánaiste acknowledge that it is unacceptable that there are 200,000 vacant homes while we have a homelessness crisis? The figure is not 200 or 2,000. The Government was to have an audit completed and published and a vacant homes strategy published by the end of March. We are now approaching June. All the plans and talk are one thing but when will we see the strategy that was negotiated and accepted by this House actually implemented? What target does the Government have? How many of the 200,000 homes does it aim to bring back into family home usage and by when?

As the Deputy knows, the Department is involved in an analysis of those vacant homes. I do not have the precise timeframe as to when further details will be published. Clearly, every action is being taken to ensure that where it is feasible for vacant homes to be used or purchased by local authorities-----

The strategy is already two months behind.

That does not mean there is not activity going on within the Department. The Deputy knows the complexities around vacant homes. There are ownership and property issues, questions of who in fact the owners are. This is not something that can be dealt with overnight. Every effort is being made to ensure that, where appropriate, vacant properties can be brought back into use.

We have been hearing that for six years.