“She was six months pregnant when she explained the situation to her landlady. The landlady told her that she would have to leave before the baby arrived ... Her excuse was that the neighbours in the apartments 'wouldn’t like the crying'. [She] waited until late in her pregnancy to tell the landlady because she was afraid of what the reaction might be.” These words reported in The Echo today are those of Mr. Conor Lynch of Threshold and tell of the experience of one renter in Cork. Can the Taoiseach even begin to imagine the stress that heartlessness would have had on that woman, the worry and the anxiety, and she is far from alone? Threshold states this is not an isolated case and recounts another incident of a pregnant woman living in private rented accommodation where a new baby was not wanted by the landlord. That woman ended up moving into homeless accommodation with her new-born.

Does this not illustrate the depths of the crisis facing renters under the housing policy of the Taoiseach's Government? The 10,500 people who are now homeless deserve better than what they got on the floor of the Dáil last night. That was an opportunity to start from scratch, take stock, and do the right and the wise thing of accepting the system is broken and changing course. The Taoiseach and the Government could have listened to the solutions, such as a radical plan of home building, both council and affordable, a reduction in rents through a rent freeze and tax relief, and the implementation of Deputy Pearse Doherty's No Consent, No Sale Bill to protect family homes from circling vulture funds and evictions. The Government did not do that, however. It wasted that opportunity and backed its man to the hilt, as did the Fianna Fáil Party and Deputy Micheál Martin, who have now clearly shown whose side they are on. They have not shown up to take the side of homeless children and struggling workers and families, but the side of landlords and property speculators. To add insult to injury, the Government bartered, cajoled and arm-twisted three Independent Deputies by promising requests and favours to be met in return for supporting the Government's man. The Government even bussed in the absentee Deputy for Cork North-Central - for one night only, however, as we hear this morning that he has resigned his seat merely hours after casting his vote of confidence. It was a farewell tour before he starts his solo career, though he has certainly been serving himself quite well for some time now - disgraceful behaviour that has let down the people of the northside of Cork city.

Where has all this got the Taoiseach, this desperate attempt to defend and protect his Minister? Some 10,514 people are homeless, including 4,000 children, there are record numbers all the time, including in Cork, children will wait for Santa in bed and breakfast and emergency accommodation, average rents in some places have now reached in excess of €2,000, people are years waiting on council housing waiting lists - last week, I met people 13 years and 17 years on the housing waiting lists - and a whole generation has no prospect of owning their own homes. In light of the figures released last night and the swathe of evidence in front of us, will the Taoiseach accept that his housing policies are not working and will he finally change direction?

I thank the Deputy for the question. I am very sorry to hear about that case he illustrated in his contribution. I do not want to comment on the detail without knowing all of the facts and information. It would be inappropriate to do so. What I do know is that pregnancy or having a child is not grounds for eviction - that would be illegal - and is certainly not grounds for issuing a notice to quit. That is why we have bodies such as Threshold and others that can assist people if they find themselves dealing with a landlord of that nature. We also have the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, a public body set up by the Government, to help enforce the rights of tenants. As a Government we have enhanced tenants' rights and we have given more resources to the Residential Tenancies Board to deal with matters such as that. While most landlords may well be very good people who provide much needed rental accommodation, there are bad landlords and we have laws to deal with them and we have an enforcement mechanism through the RTB to deal with them as well. I do not know how the case described by Deputy Ó Laoghaire ended, but that is how it should have been dealt with.

We disagree on some things, but there are some things we agree on, and one of those is that the core of the solution to the housing shortage is more supply. That is exactly what we are doing: building more homes, council houses and social housing for people on the housing list, more private housing, because most people want to buy their own home, and more homes for people to rent. More supply is what is required.

Where have we come from and where are we now? Before the Government launched its housing plan, Rebuilding Ireland, three and a half years ago, housing supply was on the floor. Only about 7,000 houses were built in the year before Rebuilding Ireland was launched. We are now up to 20,000 houses being built this year and probably 25,000 houses next year. When it comes to social housing, in the Deputy's own city of Cork, the council only built about one social house before Rebuilding Ireland was launched, but about 1,000 houses are now under construction or in process. This year, we will build and provide more social housing than in any year this century, through the boom and the bust. We are delivering on housing supply - homes for people to buy, because that is what most people want, but also social housing because that is what some people need.

It was never going to be possible to go from a situation where virtually no houses were being built to suddenly having 35,000 or 40,000 houses being built every year, which is where we need to go to. No Government and no party, no matter the resources or the will, can just turn housing construction on and off like a tap. We had a collapse in this country's economy ten years ago. The Government was bust and did not build any housing for a very long time. The Fine Gael-Labour Party Government would have built more housing if we could have afforded to, but we could not. The banks were bust and not in a position to lend to builders, while the construction industry was on the floor as well. It went bust and nearly 100,000 people emigrated as a result, many of them construction workers. It was never going to be the case that we could just turn back on the tap.

When one compares where we were three years ago to where we are now on supply, it has been a dramatic turnaround. We need to build on that to make sure we continue to increase the supply of housing. That is how we will get on top of this crisis.

The landlord was fined and rightly so. There are good landlords, as the Taoiseach has said, but there are bad landlords who are behaving like this. They are brazen because they know the deck is stacked in their favour. They know the whole system is stacked in their favour and the tenant is powerless. In every debate, the Taoiseach keeps begging for time. He says that the Government needs more time. Fine Gael has been in government since 2011. The Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has been in office since 2016. The Government has had plenty of time. The Taoiseach was disappointed at the weekend. Does he understand why people are angry and frustrated? People know that there is a lot of wealth in this country, some of which is concentrated in a small number of pockets. People know what might be possible with the right approach. They can see that the Government, and the State, is failing to meet two of the most basic and fundamental human needs imaginable: the right to be cared for and healthy and the right to a secure and safe house. The mere right to have a home, to have shelter - the Government is unable to deliver on that. How can the Taoiseach expect people to be anything other than angry? The Government hangs by a thread.

The Taoiseach to respond.

I will finish on this.

You should have finished a minute ago.

Maybe it is time for the Taoiseach to start listening. Why not introduce a rent freeze, a measure which would have the backing of the whole House and not just a minority?

The clock was not set.

Okay. My apologies. I was being too vigilant.

I am reassured and glad to hear that the law was enforced and the landlord was fined. Deputy Ó Laoghaire omitted to mention that in his contribution.

We told the Government.

The kind of behaviour I am talking about is favoured by the system and the structure.

That says the law was enforced and applied and I am glad to hear that it was. Deputy Ó Laoghaire is right when he says that many people are angry. Of course they are and I meet them all the time. Many people are angry about the problems our country faces and the fact many of them remain unresolved. It is and has always been thus: people angry with the Government and angry about the problems any country faces.

Sometimes they are right to be angry.

It was the same in Northern Ireland when Sinn Féin was in office for ten years. It was the same when Fianna Fáil was in office as well.

People have every reason to be angry.

There are many people who acknowledge the good work this country has done, taking us from a situation of mass unemployment and forced emigration to virtually full employment again-----

Homelessness is at record levels.

-----where incomes are rising, where poverty is falling and where people are becoming better off. We have delivered one of the best education systems in the world. We are investing in infrastructure all over the country again. People want us to do more.

We cannot care for and house our people.

They want us to build on what we have done. They want us to deliver on our plans in areas like housing and healthcare. They certainly do not think that the Opposition has all the solutions and all the answers, or would necessarily do a better job. The by-elections referenced by the Deputy were only by-elections. Sinn Féin won one and Fine Gael did not win any, but we got more votes than Sinn Féin across the four by-elections.

That is like someone saying that they got more presents than someone else for Christmas.

Deputy Ó Laoghaire should not make the mistake of thinking that Sinn Féin received some sort of endorsement for its policies; it did not.

The Taoiseach and his colleagues are like schoolchildren.

They are like kids fighting over sweets.