The summer has seen the housing and homelessness emergency go from disaster to calamity. According to the most recent homelessness figures, the number of homeless individuals now stands at nearly 10,000. The number of families accessing emergency accommodation stands at 1,778, which is 349 more than in the same month last year. Scandalously, the number of homeless children has increased again. There are now 3,867 children sleeping in emergency accommodation. Service providers have been reduced to referring families to Garda stations owing to the lack of emergency accommodation. In the course of the summer we witnessed the indignity of a family of seven sleeping in Tallaght Garda station. Rental costs have spiralled out of control; house prices remain above affordable levels and tens of thousands of homes lie vacant across the State. Naturally, people have responded and some have come out to protest against the Government's failures. The response has been a heavy-handed overreaction to the peaceful occupation of a building in my constituency which had lain empty for three years. Staff of a private security firm arrived in unmarked cars escorted by gardaí to evict a handful of peaceful protestors, which was an absolutely disproportionate response. I ask the Taoiseach to contrast that with the Government's response to the housing crisis which has been underwhelming, under-resourced and inadequate. The Government's flagship housing policy, Rebuilding Ireland, has been in place for two years, but the crisis has deepened. Instead of getting to grips with the emergency, the Government has attacked local authorities and Opposition Deputies and failed to see its own failures. Spin over substance and a refusal to accept that its policies are failing are the hallmarks of the Government's approach. We need a change of direction and a change of policy desperately. That means taking bold and urgent action. I have such an action to recommend to the Taoiseach. Sinn Féin has proposed the introduction of a temporary tax relief for renters, alongside a three-year emergency rent freeze. Existing tenants would have their rent frozen at current levels, while new tenants would have their rent pegged to the Residential Tenancies Board's average rent index. This would be a good move and a partial response to the crisis we face. Will the Taoiseach introduce such a rent freeze?

On behalf of the Government and everyone on this side of the House, I acknowledge the extent to which we share the concerns of everyone in the country and the Opposition about the impact the housing shortage and homelessness crisis are having on people across Ireland. It is something about which we all know from our constituency clinics, the increased workload and the increased numbers of housing queries coming through. We know about it from the experiences of people we meet, including, in many cases, family members and friends. In many cases, young couples who are struggling to buy their first home are paying more in rent than they would if they were able to buy and meeting mortgage repayments. However, they are unable to find the right property or even any property to choose. People are waiting for years on housing lists and have been forced into emergency accommodation.

The solution to this can only be increased supply. I should not say "only", but a large part of the solution must be increased supply, which we are now seeing. Figures from the CSO, which I believe everyone trusts - they should anyway - show that 4,500 new homes were built in the previous quarter alone, in the space of three months. Behind this number are real stories and real people: 4,500 families moving into newly built houses or apartments and in many cases freeing up 4,000 or 5,000 other properties for other people to buy or to rent. We anticipate that about 20,000 new homes will be built this year, certainly 20,000 if one includes vacant properties being brought back into use and student accommodation. That will be up from 14,500 last year, up from 9,000 the year before and up from about 5,000 the year before that. Therefore, I do not think anyone can doubt that we are on the right trajectory when it comes to providing more housing.

It is definite and a fact that supply is increasing, but it is not enough, and we acknowledge that. Our population last year increased by 65,000, and while this does not mean we need 65,000 new homes every year, it probably means we need about 30,000 or 35,000. We are not there yet but we are doing everything we possibly can to ramp up supply. If there are additional measures that will allow us to increase supply, we are happy to consider them, but tinkering around the edges with other things does not produce supply. While we will certainly consider the proposals Sinn Féin puts forward, I can see that they would cost. Certainly, any meaningful tax relief for renters would be expensive and we would be interested to see how Sinn Féin proposes to fund it. However, none of these things will increase supply. Ultimately, there will be more people competing for the same number of units, and as our population rises we will need more supply.

As for protests, all I can say is that in a democracy everyone has the right to protest, and protest is a very important part of a healthy democracy. It is very much my view, however, that when protests occur, they should be peaceful, in accordance with the law and respectful of gardaí, people who put their safety at risk to keep us and our communities safe.

Local authorities have the power to purchase vacant properties compulsorily. Many local authorities use their power to do so. If a local authority is not purchasing a particular vacant property compulsorily, it is probably not doing so for a reason.

It will not get the money from the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to buy it.

I note that many of the protests are taking place in the central Dublin city area. Sinn Féin and left-wing councillors dominate Dublin City Council, so I assume that if Sinn Féin and left-wing-dominated councils are not compulsorily purchasing properties in Dublin city centre, they have a reason for not doing so.

The CPO process is long and arduous.

The Taoiseach says the Government is doing everything to increase supply. It is not. I had occasion to visit a fantastic social housing scheme in Cherry Orchard and an affordable scheme in Ballymun. I spoke to the approved housing bodies about their analysis of the current situation. They both said they cannot understand all the blockages, delays and red tape being placed in their way by Government. In fact, some of them speculated and asked me whether the Government has some big announcement or whether there is a rabbit to be pulled from the hat. The fact is, sadly, that there is not. The truth is that when one talks to these approved housing bodies, the story they tell is one of delay and prevarication.

I put to the Taoiseach the idea of a rent freeze. This is a very necessary mechanism to prevent more homelessness. We know that the bulk of people now coming into homelessness, including family homelessness, are coming from the private rental sector. The Government's approach, including its pressure zones, has not worked. We need something that is fit for purpose. I am not inviting the Government to tinker around the edges of anything. On the contrary, I am asking it to take decisive action. I put it to the Taoiseach again that the Government needs to introduce a rent freeze. I hope that what Fr. Peter McVerry described as a conflict of interest that might be on the Government's benches and on those of its colleagues in government in Fianna Fáil will not prevent it from introducing something as necessary as a three-year rent freeze.

There are plenty of landlords in Sinn Féin.

I assure the Deputy that I have no rabbits to pull out of the hat and I have no quick fixes. This is not a problem that will be solved by an announcement, by some sort of quick-fix measure or by changing one law or one piece of legislation. That is just not the case. To every complex problem there is an easy and simple solution that probably does not work. A rent freeze is probably one of those. We have rent pressure zones. They have brought some control around the extent to which rents are increasing. They cap rent increases at 4% and we know from the last two ESRI reports that rents increased by approximately 1% per quarter in those areas, so there is at least some initial evidence that they have helped to moderate the rate of increases.

Rents are increasing by 7% annually. The rent pressure zones are not working.

We have to bear in mind what a rent freeze might do. On the face of it, a rent freeze sounds like a good idea, but we should think about the unintended consequences of that kind of a measure.

Such as fewer people becoming homeless.

For example, we should think about what it would do to supply. Would more people be willing to rent out a property? Would more businesses be willing to build properties for rent-----

The Taoiseach should look at the money they are making.

-----if they were put in a situation whereby Sinn Féin decided the rent charged rather than themselves? Would people be willing to move from property to property? People who live in rent controlled cities say that if one has a rent controlled apartment, one should hang on to it and not move. That means less churn and fewer people moving. What often happens with these kinds of measures is that they work for some people, particularly those who are already in rented properties, but they make it much harder for people who are trying to rent for the first time. That is why, when it comes to policies around housing, we always need to consider the unintended consequences.

People cannot rent for the first time if there is nothing available.

What might seem like a solution on the face of it, a simple, easy answer, might actually do harm to many people.