I join the Taoiseach in extending our sympathy to and expressing our solidarity with Laura's family and friends as they remember her today. I am also sorry to hear of the passing of John Browne. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

Yesterday the United Nations special rapporteur for adequate housing lists, Leilani Farha, issued a damning condemnation of the Government's record on housing for allowing vulture funds to buy up large numbers of properties across the State, only to let them at scandalous prices. She said the Government was facilitating the financialisation of housing through providing preferential tax breaks for corporate landlords and standing over weak tenant protections. We know from last month's homelessness figures that there are now more homeless persons in the State than at any time in our history. The figure is almost 10,000. There are tens of thousands of people on council housing waiting lists, while social and affordable homes are being constructed at a snail's pace. People in the private rental sector are being hit time and again, with rent increases continuing to spiral, and all the while house prices continue to rise. For many, owning a home is now nothing but a pipedream.

The response from the Taoiseach and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has been to stick with the plan and let the market do its thing. It may not have occurred to the Taoiseach yet but his plan is not working. It is failing spectacularly and the housing system in the State is broken. This is not just my assessment or that of Sinn Féin but the verdict of the United Nations that corporate interests are trumping the needs of ordinary people and families in the housing market. In the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis, we have the likes of I-RES REIT and Blackstone making massive profits, paying minimal taxes and fleecing tenants. It is ridiculous, unacceptable and must stop.

We need a radical rethink and action to benefit those who are struggling and in need of a much-needed break. Will the Taoiseach accept that there is an urgent need to rein in corporate interests in the private rental market? It is not that solutions have not been offered because there are solutions. The Taoiseach and the Minister have refused to act and listen. True to form, their partners in Fianna Fáil bury their heads in the sand, too. The Government could do the right and necessary things. It could introduce with immediate effect a three-year rent freeze and temporary tax relief for renters. It could support the legislation that will be brought before the Dáil by Deputy Ó Broin tomorrow to prevent buy-to-let landlords from seeking vacant possession. The Government could avail of and implement these alternatives. We need bold and meaningful action because the UN assessment of the Government's failures needs to be a wake-up call. Does the Taoiseach accept the assessment of the UN special rapporteur?

As I have not had an opportunity to hear about or read it in full, I would prefer not to comment on it until I have done so. I cannot argue with the fact that approximately 10,000 people live in emergency accommodation in Ireland. While there will always be a certain number who will need emergency accommodation for different reasons, 10,000 is far too high which I do not deny for one second. It concerns all of us in government greatly. We lift thousands of people out of homelessness every year; we take them out of emergency accommodation and provide them with secure tenancies, but as quickly as we are able to house people, roughly the same number become homeless. That is why we have not been able to get the number down from 10,000 for the past year. The solution is more supply. We need more homes and apartments. Last year 18,000 new homes were built. They are new houses and apartments that did not exist this time last year. There were more new houses built than in any of the past ten years, which is very significant, but we need to do better again. We need approximately 25,000 new homes this year and 30,000 in the year after. I do not see it as ideological, as Deputy McDonald does. I do not see it as social housing versus private housing, people on the housing list versus those who want to buy and the private sector versus the public sector. I do not see it in that way. We need more housing, including more social housing, and are getting it, with 9,000 units added to the social housing stock last year and 10,000 or more this year. We need more private housing that people will be able to buy. That means working with the private sector and the construction sector to deliver them because most people want to own their own home. They do not want the Government to own it for them. It also means having a much better, more regulated rental sector, which is why we introduced things like rent caps and are bringing forward more tenancy rights.

The Taoiseach's position could not be more ideological. He is blinded by his own ideology and prevented from doing the very obvious, common-sense, pragmatic and necessary things by a fierce ideology that insists on the market sorting it out and that the State and the Government sitting on the sidelines as observers, crossing their fingers and hoping for the best in trying to talk the issue away. The Government is failing. The United Nations, not Sinn Féin, states the Government is allowing faceless corporations to wreak havoc on the rights of tenants. That is its finding and a damning indictment of the Government which has its ideological position. That is where it sits. I am not here to enter into an ideological debate but to say directly to the Government that it needs to do the necessary things to protect tenants. Its so-called rent control measures have failed. We have made propositions about having a rent freeze and providing tax relief for renters. Critically, a measure will be brought to the floor of the House tomorrow-----

I am afraid the Deputy is over time.

-----by my colleague, Deputy Ó Broin, to prevent landlords from seeking vacant possession. To translate it into real English, it means preventing landlords from casting families into homelessness in order that they can sell on properties.

I appeal to the Deputy to conclude.

I am appealing to the Government to support that measure.