I ask leaders to adhere to the time allocated.

Today there are 6,000 adults homeless and 1,724 homeless families, with nearly 4,000 children. Since 2012 and 2013, various housing and homeless organisations predicted and warned about a growing crisis, but the then Government was in denial, stating the level of homelessness would not develop and that the issue would be resolved in a timely manner. We know how that worked out. The denial of a crisis is a factor in the unacceptable levels of homelessness among children. The Children's Rights Alliance has published important research today which outlines the negative impact of homelessness and living in emergency accommodation on children and their educational prospects. The report states children who are homeless in Ireland are experiencing exhaustion, hunger and increased susceptibility to illness because of poor living conditions and long journeys to and from school. The CEO of the alliance, Ms Tanya Ward, put it succinctly when she stated:

Children who are homeless lose out on every level of their education because they have no home to provide them with the backdrop that they need to learn and grow. Let me paint the picture of what child homelessness looks like on a day-to-day level and the dreadful effect this has on their schooling. For a child, life in homeless accommodation can be tough. They wake up in the one room they share with their parents and siblings. Some must wake their children as early as 5.30 a.m. to make the long journey across the city to school. Many are exhausted and some fall asleep in class. School attendance is affected. The child is hungry because often there is nowhere to store food or prepare breakfast or their lunchbox. The child doesn't always have adequate washing facilities and sometimes goes to school with a dirty uniform.

Homeless accommodation makes it almost impossible for parents to establish regular routines ... It also impacts on the child's behaviour.

Such experiences should have demanded an urgent, effective and impactful response from the Government, yet, when one looks at initiative after initiative that the Government has announced, one sees target after target being missed. We read today about the serious concerns of the Dublin city chief executive about rapid build housing. It is estimated that two rapid build schemes, one on Fishamble Street and the other in Coolock, announced in 2016, will be completed in 2020. As I said, there are 4,000 children homeless. The lack of delivery is appalling. I could go through all of the initiatives Governments have announced. The repair and release scheme has a delivery target of 800 units, but the delivery has been nil.

The time is up.

The target for the rapid build scheme is the delivery of 1,500 units by 2018; 208 have been delivered to date. Some 6,000 NAMA units were identified for delivery, of which 2,000 have been delivered. Some 400 affordable homes were identified; the number is 0%.

Please, Deputy.

I could go on and on. What is the reason for the the lack of urgency and delivery in responding to the appalling homelessness being experienced by children? Does the Taoiseach accept that the homeless children referenced in the report of the Children's Rights Alliance are being failed by the Government in the quality of its response to date?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. When it comes to the Cabinet, there is no denial whatsoever of the enormous economic and social challenge we face as a result of the housing crisis and its worst and most distressing aspect - family homelessness, with children not being able to go home at night and having to do their homework on a hotel bed. The Government is aware of the seriousness of the issue and determined to do all it can to alleviate it. It is important to double back a little and not forget how it came about. There was a seven-year period during which almost no new homes were built and almost no social housing was built by the Government because we could not afford to do so because of the perilous state of the public finances. There was an almost seven-year period during which the private sector was not producing new homes because of the collapse of the banks and the construction sector. That is the backdrop against which we are trying to deal with this enormous social crisis which involves a deficit of as many as 250,000 homes, on which we need to catch up on in the next period. However, I believe the actions taken by the Government in the past year or two are starting to show results. For example, when it comes to rent controls, approximately half of those who become homeless do so because they have lost their place in the private rented accommodation sector. In the past two quarters we have seen rents increase by or less than 1%. That is evidence the rent controls the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has brought forward are having an effect.

We know that.

The Minister did not bring them forward.

The number of people living in emergency accommodation is levelling off. In the Dublin area, for example, last month there was a reduction in the number of families entering homelessness.

Not last month.

For the first time, we were taking more people out of homelessness than were entering it.

The Government was opening new hubs.

We are moving away from the use of hotels and bed and breakfast accomodation which are totally unsuitable for families and towards family hubs which are very different as they have cooking and washing facilities and play areas. While it is by no means a long-term solution and an alternative to a house or an apartment, it is a much better temporary solution. There are 500 such places, with another 400 to come.

On the last count, the level of rough sleeping was down by approximately 40%. The reduction is due to the increase in shelter accommodation made available with Government resources. Of course, the underlying problem is housing supply, in which we are now seeing a real increase.

Not in affordable housing.

The CSO figures, which nobody disputes and which cannot lie, show that last year 14,446 new homes were built. That figure does not include the number of vacant houses - more than 2,000 - being brought back into use. It also does not include the student accommodation being made available, of which there is a lot.

I thank the Taoiseach.

The 14,446 new homes built last year amounted to an increase of 50% on the figure for the previous year. That is evidence that the level of housing supply is ramping up.

The time is up.

We expect 18,000 or 20,000 new homes to be built this year.

At €400,000 for a house.

The Taoiseach is wrong in the backdrop he has suggested.

The Taoiseach and the Government made many announcements of various schemes and the media were fair to them because they reported those announcements faithfully. Some 800 units were to be delivered under the repair and leasing scheme at the beginning of 2017 and zero have been delivered. Some 1,500 houses were to be built under the rapid build scheme by the end of 2018. The delivery to date has been 208. The National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, was due to deliver 6,946 units and only 2,400 were delivered. There was an affordable homes target of 400 by the end of 2018 and zero have been delivered. There has been an affordable rent scheme of €10 million promised since 2015 and zero has been delivered. The home building finance Ireland scheme was announced 12 months ago in the budget and was faithfully and fairly reported by the media. What happened? Legislation to establish the body has yet to pass the Oireachtas. We can go on and on with various announcements of the Government. That is the backdrop. Why has there been a failure to deliver?

The Taoiseach should not get annoyed with commentators and the Opposition if they point out that there has been a clear failure to deliver the necessary housing to get the children I referred to out of emergency accommodation. It is a blight on our society and the Taoiseach does not care enough about it. We have too much spin. That is why we railed against the strategic communications unit because that was about spin over substance and we need substance in delivering houses for children who need it for their proper development and growth in our society into the future.

Let us leave aside announcements for the moment and let us-----

Where was the Taoiseach this morning?

This morning I came off a plane from New York at 1.30, so that is where I was.

The Government jet.

He was down the back of the bus.

Unfortunately the Government jet does not cross the Atlantic. It was Norwegian Air, but to answer the question, let us leave aside the announcement for the moment, let us leave aside the spin, let us leave aside the Deputies railing against that-----

Show me the houses.

-----and let us talk about delivery and the facts. The facts say that 2,000 people were taken out of hotels last year. These were parents and families. In fact, 2,000 families were taken out of hotels-----

They were knocked down by 3,000 going in.

It is always the facts that get shouted down in this House. Some 2,000 families were taken out of hotel accommodation in the past year and most of them were brought into houses and apartments. A total of 14,046 new dwellings were completed last year, a 50% increase on the year before and a 75% increase on-----

How many social houses?

-----the year before that, 7,000 new homes were added to our social housing stock, the biggest in a long time, 2,600 homes that were out of use and vacant were reconnected to the ESB grid, and 1,000 unfinished houses, the ghost estates that Fianna Fáil left behind, were completed and made available for people to buy and live in.

The Taoiseach has spent too much time at high altitude.

Facts.