Two reports published this morning confirm what people have known for quite some time, that is, that the Government's housing policy is a catastrophic failure. The overriding message in the reports from Daft.ie and the ESRI is that accommodation has become unaffordable and supply is at an all-time low. As things stand, renting or buying a home is now beyond the reach of an entire generation. Rather than delivering opportunity, the Government's housing crisis has instead delivered extreme stress, depression and hopelessness for thousands of citizens, who work hard and who aspire to a better life but for whom there is very little reward.

Ten years ago, a couple would make sacrifices in their daily lives to save for a deposit for a home but today they make exactly the same sacrifices simply to meet the extortionate rent that is due at the end of each month, if they are lucky. Life goals that were once considered modest and common have all been made impossible and people have told me their relationships are cracking under the strain of the housing emergency.

For many people in their late 20s to mid 30s even the idea of starting a family now falls into the bracket of unaffordability. These are the very real human consequences for those struggling to get on the property ladder or struggling to pay their rent. This is the reality and we hear it every day. The damage that is being done to people, including to their mental and physical health, is devastating. They spend 40 hours a week at work, and some spend more, but they have precious little to show for it. They cannot build a future and they find themselves in an exhausting economic and psychological dead end. So much for a republic of opportunity. It is nothing but a dupe.

I suggest the Taoiseach needs to change track. Instead of trying to normalise homelessness in this State with crude statistical exercises he needs to implement policies that actually work. The Government must increase the supply of affordable housing and introduce measures to reduce the cost of purchasing or renting a home. Just so as the Taoiseach knows, affordable housing means properties at a sale price of between €160,000 to €260,000 in Dublin. This would meet the needs of households earning above the threshold for social housing but below the €75,000 a year mark. It would mean affordable rental tenancies with fair rent. We have repeatedly suggested some solutions that meet these problems. Will the Taoiseach today commit to introducing a new affordable housing scheme that delivers homes on a level that matches the scale of the crisis we face? Rather than throwing renters to the wolf of market forces, will the Taoiseach introduce legislation that delivers real rent certainty by linking increases to the cost of living?

The Deputy is very welcome back. I understand she was on a fundraising trip to the United States last week. I hope that went very well.

In terms of the two reports the Deputy mentioned, the daft.ie report and the ESRI report both add to our understanding of this issue and they are both worth a read and worthy of consideration. I had the opportunity on the way in this morning to listen to some experts on housing speak about the two reports on "Morning Ireland". They came from very different perspectives, from daft.ie, the ESRI and the Nevin Institute. They all agreed the fundamental underlying problem is a lack of supply and the fact we do not have enough houses, apartments and homes for a country with a rising population, increasing employment and changing demographics with more people in smaller households.

In terms of supply, we are increasing the provision of social housing. Between 2,000 and 3,000 social houses will be completed before the end of the year. This is a significant increase on last year and the year before. This will increase to approximately 4,000 to 5,000 next year. In terms of affordability, we have provided hundreds of millions for the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, to make sites accessible and make it possible for developers to build on them. There is a requirement as part of this that a significant number of the units be affordable. We also announced in the budget the establishment of house building finance Ireland. This will make it much cheaper for builders to get finance. This will take some time to get up and running but will be up and running sometime next year. We have also increased the vacant site levy to punish people who hoard land. At Cabinet today, we decided to make an amendment to the Finance Bill to require the Department of Finance to produce a report on a vacant house tax and how this might work. This will be for the consideration of the Dáil. We have also fast tracked planning and we are changing the building regulations. We are seeing results. Planning permissions are up 49% year on year, commencement notices are up 45% year on year and next year we anticipate somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 new homes being built, which is not enough but is a significant improvement on previous years.

The report on rent refers to rents advertised, so it does not cover the rent pressure zones.

As a result of the introduction of the rent pressure zones, 60% of renters now have rent certainty and rent control and cannot have their rent increased by more than 4% in any one year. That has given huge relief and security to people who are renting. The scheme has already been extended to Drogheda and parts of County Wicklow and may well be extended again.

Last week, the Taoiseach had neither a definition of "affordable housing" nor any targets for the delivery of affordable homes. At the weekend, he deliberately used an out-of-date OECD report to try to play down the scale of the homelessness crisis we face. He has said that he has read today's reports and that they "add to our understanding of this issue". We would have found it more comforting if he had told us that the reports have illuminated his understanding. Perhaps he just does not want to know. The figures demonstrate the root of our problem. The Taoiseach mentioned that, over three years, €1.1 billion is being dedicated to the help-to-buy scheme, the local infrastructure fund and House Building Finance Ireland. All of those initiatives are directed at private developers. By contrast, a mere €25 million be allocated over the next two years to build houses that are really affordable, such as those on sale in the Poppintree area of Ballymun. People like clerical staff and factory workers who are on average incomes can afford to buy such houses. The Taoiseach has performed an about-face. I have quite deliberately set out for him the human consequences of the catastrophe people are facing. I hear these stories and I am sure he hears them too. I hope they are adding to his understanding and informing his position. Will he dedicate more money to the construction of truly affordable housing? Will he introduce a new scheme that will meet this crisis head-on in real terms? Is he open to that?

Nobody in this House has a monopoly on compassion. Everyone in this House has friends, family members and constituents, hosts constituency clinics and understands the problems being faced by individuals. We all know that homelessness is a stain on our society. We all know that the millions of people who are not directly affected by it are angered by the injustice of it. We understand the wider issue of young people working, saving up and trying to afford to buy their own homes for the first time but not being able to do so. I remind Deputy McDonald, who asked about my definition of "affordable housing", that the definition she uses is from 2011 and was stood down some time ago. The OECD report I quoted was published in 2017.

It uses figures from 2015.

The numbers used by Deputy McDonald are from 2015. The report to which I refer is from 2017.

It uses figures from 2015.

Context does matter, so I should mention that I used that report specifically in response to a question about Ireland having one of the highest homelessness levels. While I have heard people debating statistics for the past two days - I have no interest in debating statistics, by the way - I have not heard anyone repeating that assertion because, of course, it is not true, particularly on the basis of-----

How many people here have died as a result of homelessness in comparison with other European countries?

-----the OECD data or the FEANTSA data collected by non-governmental organisations such as the Simon Community, Focus Ireland, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the Peter McVerry Trust. We will dedicate more resources to the building of affordable housing. The local infrastructure housing activation fund is about making sites accessible so that builders can build affordable homes. The house-building finance initiative is about enabling builders to finance the construction of housing and making it cheaper to build houses so that there can be more affordable homes for more people.

When the commission of investigation which ultimately became the Charleton tribunal was first discussed, Deputy Wallace and I sought to amend its terms of reference to include an investigation into the extent to which the then Minister for Justice and Equality had been briefed about Maurice McCabe. When the disclosures tribunal was established in March of this year, we wrote to Mr. Justice Charleton to ask him to investigate specifically under term of reference [h], which the Taoiseach quoted earlier, contact between An Garda Síochána and staff in the Department of Justice and Equality.

Anyone who is surprised that evidence of the involvement of the Department of Justice and Equality exists really has not been paying attention to what has gone on in terms of the crisis of policing in this State in recent years and its roots in the link between An Garda Síochána, the Department and the Minister, a link we sought to break in legislation designed to facilitate proper independent oversight, which, unfortunately, was not supported by the House. The real issue for the Taoiseach is not that the crisis will have a knock-on effect on the Department but rather why that information is being released now through the offices of his former Cabinet colleague, whose party supported Nóirín O'Sullivan 100% - not just in government but in opposition - when revelations in respect of her legal strategy regarding Maurice McCabe had been made. Critically, what is the Taoiseach going to do about this? He has fared pretty well out of Garda controversies but he is now the boss and this is solely a matter for him. He can either choose to be a pawn in the games being played by the warring tribes that exist within An Garda Síochána - with the Department of Justice and Equality mandarins in the background - or he can decide to take decisive action in the context of delivering a modern police service that the citizens and gardaí deserve.

Last week, senior Garda officers who attended a pre-retirement course were shocked to see none other than the acting Garda Commissioner amble in and sit down to listen to what was being said. They thought he was at the helm. This is the same acting Garda Commissioner whose report into allegations of Garda involvement in the heroin trade in the Minister for Justice and Equality's constituency has not been published for three and a half years. As a result, GSOC cannot publish its report because it was previously been prevented from attending the disciplinary action involving these gardaí and has been frustrated in trying to access files. How can there be change without accountability or effective oversight and how long is the Taoiseach going to allow this situation to prevail? The Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland is flopping around on the outskirts coming up with nice jargon about new uniforms and new words. How in God's name will the chaos be stopped when there is nobody at the helm? What other company with 15,000 members of staff would not have a CEO in place? What job takes that long to fill? When is the Taoiseach going to call for the implementation of the Garda Síochána Inspectorate report and the filling of the vacancy for Garda Commissioner?

The process of Garda reform is much very under way. We have an acting Garda Commissioner, whom I met last week. He is not retiring and will be in place until we are in a position to recruit a new Garda Commissioner, which we intend to do as soon as possible. Discussions are under way with the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland and the Policing Authority to make that happen because it is important that we have a new Garda Commissioner in place sooner rather than later and that this individual will be able to bring in his or her own team. I do not think one person alone can change An Garda Síochána. When I was in Seattle the week before last, I had the opportunity to speak with Kathleen O'Toole who informed me about she reformed and modernised the police service in that city. She told me that it was somewhat similar to what we had in Ireland, with gardaí running IT systems and HR - things that policemen are not really best trained to do - and how important it was that the new Commissioner would be able to bring in his or her own team.

It may be worth informing the House that a memorandum was brought to the Cabinet this morning by the Minister for Justice and Equality to give the Policing Authority approval for the first time to appoint a superintendent of An Garda Síochána who is a member of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, PSNI. This is a very practical example of reform that is under way. For the first time, somebody from an outside police force - in this case, an officer from the PSNI - can be appointed to a senior position in An Garda Síochána, so that is an outside appointment to a senior position. I think we will see more of that in the weeks and months ahead.

I cannot answer questions on behalf of third parties who are not Members of this House or who formerly served here.

Such questions would have to be directed to them. We should be circumspect when commenting on matters that are before a tribunal. As parliamentarians, we need to bear that in mind when making public comment. We need to respect the role of the tribunal, which was established by the Oireachtas earlier this year. All sides of the House supported the establishment of that tribunal and all Members were given an opportunity at that time to contribute to its terms of reference. The Standing Orders of the House, as the Ceann Comhairle will know, preclude Members from raising matters that encroach on the work of the tribunal.

We fully respect the work of Mr. Justice Charleton and the record will bear witness to that. We have been in contact with him. There is a crisis of policing in the State. A drowning man or woman will grab on to anyone to try to save him or herself. It could be a senior civil servant or a Minister. The question for the Taoiseach is whether it will be him. The Taoiseach's answer is not the answer he would have given when he was a Minister. The issue at stake is who will seize control. Measures such as the appointment of people from other police services have long been recommended by the Garda Inspectorate. We need the implementation of such measures. The Taoiseach will probably bask in the glory of his new leadership and the benefit it has brought to Fine Gael, which is the same party with the same members but which is perceived differently. Presumably a new leader for An Garda Síochána could be the transforming vehicle it needs because it needs something. What we have now is warring tribes in anticipation of the Charleton tribunal. If the Taoiseach honestly thinks that can continue until the commission on policing decides to give us an answer, possibly in a year's time, then he is more deluded than I gave him credit for previously.

The Deputy is absolutely right. I do not disagree with the analysis she has put forward. I am not sure I would go so far as to say there are warring tribes but I broadly agree with the solutions the Deputy has put forward and the change that needs to happen. I gave the Deputy an example of the change that is happening. For the first time, somebody from outside - a member of the PSNI - has been appointed as superintendent. That was agreed by Cabinet this morning. We also have a civilianisation process under way. The Deputy will be aware that a number of senior posts in the Garda are now being filled by civilians. We have the Policing Authority and the policing commission. We certainly will not be waiting for the policing commission to produce its final report before we recruit a new Garda Commissioner. We need a new Garda Commissioner and we need that person to be able to bring in people from outside the force to modernise and improve it and to bring it up to the standard we expect. It is not fully under the control of the Government. The Policing Authority has a role in it now. It is our intention as a Government to advertise for the position of Garda Commissioner before the end of this calendar year.

The Taoiseach: The Deputy is absolutely right. I do not disagree with the analysis she has put forward. i am not sure i would go as far as warring tribes but I broadly agree with the solutions the Deputy is putting forward and the change that needs to happen. I have the Deputy an example of the change that is happening. For the first time, somebody from outside - a member of the PSNI - has been appointed a sa superintendent. That was agreed by Cabinet this morning. We also have a civilianisaiton process under way. The Deputy will be aware a number of senior posts in the gardaí are now being filled by civilians. We have the Policing Authority and the policing commission. We will certainly not be waiting for the policing commission to produce its final report before we recruit a new garda Commissioner. We need a new Garda Commissioner and we need it to be able to bring in people from outside the force to modernise and improve it and bring it up to the standard we expect. It is not fully under the control, of the Government. The Policing Authority has a role in it now. We tiancicpate and it is our intention as a Government to advertise for the position of Garda Commissioner before the end of this calendar year.