One in five families across the State lives in rented accommodation and one quarter of all households in Dublin rent. Renters are working single people and couples, some desperately trying to save for a deposit. They are separated and divorced people, in some instances, who have lost their family home. They are families recovering from mortgage distress. Renters are students forced to choose between sky-high rents and a crippling commute. They are modest-income earners approaching retirement who never had a chance to buy their own home and who now look nervously to the future. They are 300,000 households and 750,000 people. That is who renters are.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been in government together for five years, first in confidence and supply and now in their coalition Government. During that time, the cost of renting has spiralled out of control. Average rents now stand at €1,352 State wide and €1,848 in Dublin. Today, an average-income worker renting in Dublin pays more than €22,000 a year in rent - more than half their take-home pay. Renters, of course, still have to put food on the table, provide for their children and face the massive gas and electricity bills. As things stand, those who wish to get a deposit together do not stand a chance of doing so. They are locked into what can only be described as a nightmare.

It took a pandemic for the Government to introduce emergency protections for renters, but since the Taoiseach has been in office, all these protections have been stripped away by his Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. The result is that rents have started to spiral out of control yet again. The long-promised supply of affordable cost-rental accommodation has not materialised. However, the Government's tax breaks for vulture funds continue. This means they can still gobble up apartments, for which they charge extortionate rents to the tenants concerned.

To top it all, the Government announced a budget yesterday that did nothing for renters. Why is this? Not a single measure in budget 2022 will alleviate the financial pressures faced by renters. There was no move to cut rents or ban rent increases, no measures to improve standards or security of tenure. The Tánaiste has stated one person's rent is another person's income. While this budget does nothing for struggling renters, it made damn sure big landlords still get their income, given that the only private rented sector measure in the Government's budget is an extension of a tax break for landlords.

Tá sé go hiomlán scannalach nach raibh aon rud sa bhuiséad do chíosaithe atá ag streachailt. Tá cíosanna imithe ó smacht ar fad agus tá na cíosaithe croíbhriste leis an gcostas maireachtála atá ag ardú, ach ní raibh dada ann dóibh.

Why has the Taoiseach's Government refused to show up for renters, people who are facing extortionate rents? When will it cut rents, ban rent increases and provide tenants and renters with the security and affordability they so desperately need and so rightly deserve?

I need to correct the disinformation given to the House. The truth matters. Fianna Fáil has been in government for 15 months and we have had a Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for the past 15 months. We have not been in government for five years. The Deputy should not continue to articulate an untruth-----

The Taoiseach, without interruption.

Just because the Deputy keeps saying it does not mean it is true. It is untrue and she should stop saying it in the interest of proper honesty in public debate.

Let us leave that to one side. The Deputy is also ignoring the fact this budget does deal with many thousands of people who rent, but maybe people on the housing assistance payment, HAP, or on the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, or people who get rent supplement do not matter to her. These are real renters in real homes whom the Government directly supports, namely, 65,000 tenants with HAP, 17,000 through RAS and 20,000 through rent supplement, with about €600 million provided to support renters in those situations.

The other key measure announced yesterday that will benefit renters is the tax relief from the indexation of income tax bands and credits. A total of 1.8 million working families will benefit from that tax package announced yesterday. The Deputy has opposed that and her party's finance spokesperson said yesterday that Sinn Féin is against that tax relief. It is a tax relief that will benefit renters. I have spoken to some renters, people in their mid-20s who are earning incomes in and around €35,000 or €40,000. People who earn below €35,000 will benefit also. They will get some relief from that tax relief. The Deputy not only ignores that but actually opposes it and thinks we should not have indexed the tax bands, which will give a modest relief to people who are renting and paying tax in that regard. For remote workers, there is further tax relief. Across the board within the budget, a variety of cost-of-living measures will, I hope, reduce costs in health, childcare and other areas to assist people and more, of course, needs to be done.

The most fundamental way to deal with the rental situation is to provide for supply of houses, and the Housing for All strategy does that in an unprecedented way through the interventions that will be taken and particularly through the cost-rental model. Next year, 1,500 homes will come on stream through the cost-rental model. That is a scheme the Minister has committed to and it will grow and be ramped up over time, which will see rents significantly below market level. The Minister has introduced five rental Acts to help deal with rent issues and to keep the pressure downwards in respect of rent. He introduced legislation to tie rents to the consumer price index. Unfortunately, inflation has increased in recent months, mainly through global issues arising from the impact of Covid, but the Minister is committed in the coming weeks to bring in a cap below the level of inflation to keep downward pressure on rents in order that they will not increase at the rate they would have previously. This will be lower, obviously, than what was provided for in rent pressure zones. The Minister has also been consistent and focused on improving the capacity of the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, in respect of identifying landlords who breach rent caps and penalising them. He has provided additional resources in the budget in this regard, with €11 million given to the RTB for 2022 to help it carry out this work.

We have taken measures to ensure our resources are targeted at those who want to rent or buy houses at an affordable level. There is no guarantee that what Sinn Féin has suggested in its Opposition budget would give the results the party thinks it would in respect of tax relief for renters. The Commission on Taxation and Welfare has been consistent on that in previous times in ruling that out as a viable option.

Of course, the truth matters. The truth is not alone did Fianna Fáil support Fine Gael in government through confidence and supply but the Taoiseach came into this House and bragged on more than one occasion that he had secured what he described at the time as a housing budget. That was his claim, his brag at the time.

Consistency also matters and so does this. I have asked the Taoiseach questions he knows are directed towards those in the private rented sector. I do not doubt that the Government will ratchet up money into HAP and RAS, commensurate with its failure to deliver social and affordable housing; that is a long-established pattern. On behalf of those who face rents of more than €1,300 or €1,800 a month, whom the Government has left high and dry, I want an explanation.

I want to know when the Government will finally act and do the right thing. The right thing is to give relief to renters, as we have proposed. Our proposal is to put a month's rental income back in their pockets and to ban rent increases for three years. I want an explanation for those people from the Taoiseach as to why he has failed to show up for them again and failed to take these actions.

I put it to the Deputy that she has opposed tax relief for renters in the form of the indexation of tax bands and credits that the Government introduced yesterday. She is resolutely opposed to that. That will give relief to those who are renting at present through reductions in income tax as a result of those measures. The Deputy opposes that, and she has articulated her opposition to it.

With regard to the HAP payments and so forth, these are real people who are renting right now.

I know. They are trapped people.

We want to provide social housing for people-----

You have not-----

-----and that is why the last 12 months have witnessed a transformation in terms of putting the State centre stage in the provision of social and affordable housing. The Housing for All strategy announced by the Government provides for unprecedented resources next year and the year after. Some 11,000 social houses are to be provided next year. That will ultimately turn around the HAP experience and will result in fewer people on HAP and more people housed through social housing programmes. Equally, the State, through local authorities and through the Land Development Agency, will be providing affordable houses for young people, in particular, and for renters who are currently renting to enable them to buy houses that they can afford.