I pay tribute to our public servants who are carrying out vital work today throughout the country to help people reach their destination and to keep our emergency services in operation and I pay tribute to all those who are helping their neighbours and friends around the country.

People are battening down the hatches across the country. The worst of Storm Emma and the Siberian wind is yet to hit. While people are out and about today and at work, it is likely that from tonight they will be confined to their homes for some days to come. That is, of course, those who have a home. The homelessness figures for January were published yesterday. Following a brief drop in December, the figures have continued to increase. There are currently 9,104 people homeless in Ireland. They comprise 5,837 adults and a record 3,267 children who are relying on emergency accommodation. It is a sad reflection of our Government that the best excuse the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government could offer was that the extent of the increase was not anticipated. Over the past week, the Government has been focused on spending €1.5 million on propaganda to promote investment in a ten-year national development plan while more than 9,000 of our citizens are without a roof over their heads to call their own. These are real people and real lives are being impacted by this crisis.

Research by Focus Ireland published last November demonstrated the impact the crisis is having on children. The deep negative effect on their emotional and mental health has been documented and the statement yesterday by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, that babies living in hotels are not reaching their development milestones is a shocking indictment of a failed policy. The State will have to deal with the repercussions of this for a generation. Rebuilding Ireland is not delivering the homes needed. The Minister has asked the Dublin Region Homeless Executive to investigate the matter and to prepare a detailed report but that will not help a single family. The problem is not enough social housing is being built and there is no co-ordinated effort to rapidly bring vacant housing back into use while there is no security of tenure for tenants as landlords seek to raise rents, refurbish or sell their properties. Despite commitments by the then Minister to end the use of emergency accommodation by last July, it remains the first port of call. It is an outrage in a modern, developed, wealthy country, such as Ireland, that more than 3,000 of our children are homeless. Figures provided to me yesterday show that a total of 1,517 families were using emergency accommodation during January but, that month, 700 homeless families were recorded as staying in hotels and bed and breakfasts in the Dublin region, with 385 of them having been in them for longer than six months. What new plans has the Taoiseach to address this? Will he personally ensure rigid targets are set to reduce month on month the number of homeless children?

The figures for the number of people in emergency accommodation that were published yesterday are bad and they are distressing for everyone affected by homelessness and for everyone who is working night and day to resolve the enormous social problem we face. As the Deputy correctly pointed out, they are disappointing given that they had gone down in December. Many of us hoped that was the beginning of a trend but it is certainly not possible to say that at the moment as they have gone back up again. That says to us that we must redouble our efforts to increase the supply of affordable and social housing and all other forms of housing. As the Deputy correctly pointed out, that is the fundamental solution to this problem. Following seven years of almost no houses being built, we are ramping up housing construction again - both social housing and private sector housing. People moving into new homes frees up rental properties for others. Project Ireland 2040, which was published two weeks ago, has housing all the way through it.

And Fine Gael candidates.

It should be called Fine Gael 2019 with a budget of €1.5 million.

It is all about housing among other things, and it contains a commitment to build 110,000 new social homes and apartments over the next ten years.

The Taoiseach is starting to believe his own editorial.

They were announced three years ago.

That is happening. There were only a few hundred social homes built in 2016 but thousands were built last year and the number is being ramped up again this year, although it will take time to get on top of this problem.

Our major concern today is rough sleepers given the bad weather people are facing. We are ensuring there is food, health and shelter for everyone who needs it. Teams were on the streets last night and they are on the streets today encouraging people to come in. I am told that only about a dozen people did not come in last night. I pay tribute to the efforts of the charity, NGO, council and departmental staff who are working hard, particularly in this bad weather, to make sure everyone who is sleeping rough is aware that shelter, food and heat are available for them. We are working closely with groups such as the McVerry Trust and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to make sure that is the case.

The Taoiseach acknowledged that the numbers are bad but I did not detect a sense of urgency to deal with the issue. For example, last week, we were able to rush through legislation to recruit a Garda Commissioner in one day.

I want to see the same sense of urgency in terms of giving the Residential Tenancies Board real powers to hold landlords to account and to protect tenants from being evicted, which is actually happening, and building and renovating new homes. We know what the solutions are. However, there are thousands of children at risk today and will be at risk if there is not a sense of urgency. I want to know if the Taoiseach will declare a state of emergency to ensure all the resources of the State are directed at addressing this once and for all. Will he set real targets and will he personally ensure they are met to reduce the number of children and families homeless and in emergency accommodation?

If we could solve homelessness in a day, we would do that. If it was a case of rushing through legislation or a piece of-----

Seven years.

Seven years. It is being made worse day by day.

The Deputy's party crashed the economy.

-----legislation that would give everyone a house, we would of course do that. However, the Deputy was a Minister of State with responsibility for housing, sitting at the Cabinet table-----

Our numbers were nothing like that.

-----for three years, and she knows as well as I do how complex this problem is.

Sure, a house was not built.

It is everybody else's record.

There was a period of seven years during which this country was so broke that we were not able to build social housing and during which the construction industry and the banks were on the floor and were not able to finance or build private housing during which time it would have been expected that 200,000 or 300,000 homes to be built.

I would say that record will not be surpassed by the Taoiseach.

However, they were not. We know the causes of that crash. I certainly do not hold the Deputy responsible for it at all or for not building more houses in those three and a half years during which she was the Minister of State with responsibility for housing.

I would say she is delighted with that absolution.

It is a better record than the Taoiseach has.

I thank the Taoiseach. His time is up.

I am not sure the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, will get the same absolution for the few bob to the pensioners. He might not be as generous.

We are in a catch up.

Order, please.

We are in a catch up scenario and we are catching up. However, it is going to take time. There is an absolute sense of urgency and emergency. We would not be providing for so many people to stay in emergency accommodation and we certainly would not have a situation where we are avoiding families having to be on the streets by making sure there is emergency accommodation available, whether it is hotels or hubs, if we did not see this as an emergency.