I thank the Ceann Comhairle or, rather, the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I am sorry.

That is all right.

He will take that in time too.

I was just getting the Chair's title right.

Last week, I raised with the Taoiseach the UN special rapporteur on adequate housing's damning condemnation of the Government's record on housing. New research published in The Economic and Social Review further illustrates the points I raised last week and shows that many households and individuals are paying more than half of their incomes on rent. Those in the private rental sector, young and old, are being hit time and again with unbearable rental costs and hikes. All the while, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, stand idly by.

For many people, owning a home is but a pipedream. In real terms, home ownership is beyond reach for an entire generation. Not only are houses unaffordable, but rents are at such a level that no one can put away a few quid to save for a deposit. Many of these people are working in good jobs and earn good salaries. They are up bright and early. They are people who, at any other time, would be well able to afford a decent home but are now under serious pressure, yet the Taoiseach does not seem to grasp that. Those who can ask their parents for the money for a deposit are few and far between. He should know that.

The housing system is broken, yet the Government's response is to stick with its plan even though that is failing spectacularly. Sticking with the plan is predicated on preserving the interests of landlords, not on giving renters a break, which ought to be the Government's first priority. On Monday, it was revealed that Cairn Homes was to sell 300 apartments in Dublin wholesale to a vulture fund, which, in turn, will charge exorbitant rents. This is playing out now.

Yesterday, the Tánaiste stated that the legislation relating to rent pressure zones is to be extended to the end of 2021, but that will not deal in any real way with the magnitude of the problem we face. We need real solutions, not piecemeal actions. We need more social homes, more private homes at affordable prices, more cost rental homes, tax relief for renters and real rent control. We also need legislation to prevent buy-to-let landlords seeking vacant possession; in other words, to prevent them from sending people into homelessness in order that they can sell their properties. That legislation will be before us and a vote will be taken on it tomorrow. I urge the Government to support it even though the Government and its friends in Fianna Fáil have previously opposed it. I am asking the Taoiseach to do this one right thing as a signal and as the beginning of a process of the Government getting to grips with the rental crisis, which affects approximately 1 million people across the State.

I thanks the Deputy for raising this very important issue once again. The Government and I are really strong supporters of home ownership. I believe in home ownership and that everyone has the right to shelter and should be able to aspire to owning his or her own home. In Ireland, 71% of people own their homes. That is actually higher than the European average. The figure used to be even higher and I want to see it increase again. It was the norm for a very long time that people in their 20s could afford to buy their own homes. That is now not the case. The average person who can afford to buy his or her own home is now well into his or her 30s and people end up paying rent for a very long time before they can get on the property ladder. As a result, a figure of 71% in respect of home ownership is not good enough for me. I want to see that rise. We are absolutely committed to doing everything we can to increase home ownership again in this State.

Rents are very high in Ireland, in many cases higher than what people would pay if they had a home in terms of their mortgage. That is unusual. Second, a lot of people struggle to raise a deposit, which one needs to buy a home.

There are solutions, and the solutions lie in three areas. They lie in supply and providing more housing of all sorts, they lie in enhancing tenants' rights, and they also lie in helping first-time buyers. Supply is now picking up, with 18,000 new homes built last year, more than any year in the past decade. We anticipate as many as 25,000 new homes of all sorts being built this year - social housing units, but also private homes that people can buy. There will be places that people can rent because people also need places to rent. Everyone is not going to buy. People who move around a lot need to be able to rent.

Second, we are enhancing tenants' rights. The Deputy will be aware of what the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government announced last night with the approval of the Government. We are: extending the rent pressure zones to 2021 in order to ensure that nobody in those areas will be the subject of a rent increase of more than 4%; changing the criteria for rent pressure zones so that they apply in more areas; extending those rules to student accommodation; and - something that I think will help to make a difference - extending notice to quit periods so that if someone is renting and the owner of the house is going to renovate or sell or if a family member is going to move back in, the owner will have to give much more notice of three months, or six in some cases, in order that the person in the house will have much more time than he or she has at present to find somewhere to live. In the current circumstances, if one is asked to vacate, one only has a few weeks to find somewhere else to live. That is not enough time in the current market. These laws will give people much more time to find place to lives.

We are also helping first-time buyers. More than 10,000 people have already been helped through the help-to-buy scheme to raise deposits. That has been a very significant help for 10,000 people. The Government has given them some of their income tax back to help them raise a deposit. Ten thousand people have already been assisted to buy a home through that action.

Leo fiddles while Rome burns. I am glad the Taoiseach has shared with us his deep commitment to homeownership. I am glad he at least recognises that there is a crisis and that homeownership for a whole generation is off the cards unless their mammy and daddy can help out with a deposit. The Taoiseach is missing the point of my question, perhaps deliberately. I have set out for him the real pressure that renters are under. He will be aware, as Focus Ireland has reported, that up to 70% of families presenting as homeless come from the private rental sector.

I have asked the Taoiseach to take one concrete action, set aside the rhetoric and do something constructive by backing the Sinn Féin legislation that is before the Dáil. That legislation will ensure that buy-to-let landlords cannot insist on vacant possession to sell the property because that renders these families homeless. I am sure that people outside the Dáil are sick to the back teeth of the housing crisis and politicians talking about it. They want action and this is one solid action that could be taken, that could prove to people, by deed rather than word, that the Taoiseach is serious about getting to grips with family homelessness and the crisis in the rental sector.

I will correct the Deputy on one point. The Government is helping people to raise a deposit to buy their own home. Some 10,000 people have already benefited from the help-to-buy scheme by getting some of their taxes back to put towards a deposit and 10,000 is not a small number.

We are taking concrete action. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, yesterday announced reforms to extend the notice-to-quit periods. A renter who is asked to quit a property because it is being renovated, sold or a family member is moving back in will have much more time to find an alternative place to live and rent. That is a concrete action.

Sinn Féin's proposal is not a concrete action. We examined it and met with chief executive officers of NGOs about it. The problem is that the Sinn Féin proposal cannot apply retrospectively or to existing tenancies so it would not help one person who is currently renting or facing homelessness. It might, in fact, be counter-productive by discouraging people who are thinking about renting out a property from doing so. Somebody who has upgraded and bought a new home and is thinking about renting out their existing property might be discouraged from doing so were they to find out they would be unable to sell that property.

We are taking concrete action. What Sinn Féin is proposing cannot be retrospective and will not help anyone who is currently renting or facing homelessness. It might get Sinn Féin on the news but that it is all it will do.