The latest daft.ie rental report makes for very bleak reading. It will bring no comfort to tenants who hand over an extortionate amount of their earnings to landlords every month and it again highlights the abject failure of the Government to get to grips with this crisis. Rents, already at record levels, increased by a further 7% in the past year. The average rent has more than doubled in a decade, increasing every year for the past nine years. It now stands at €1,516 per month. It is off the wall.

While rents in Dublin continue to soar to an astonishing average of €2,082, the real punch in the gut in this report is the massive jump in rents people in the regions now face. Rents in Munster are up by 15.6%. In Connacht-Uladh, people in Mayo, Leitrim and Roscommon have been hit by a 20% hike. A bad situation has gotten even worse on the Taoiseach's watch and that of a Fianna Fáil Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Fianna Fáil has picked up right where its Fine Gael partners left off. The party's refusal to take urgent action means this crisis has become a generational catastrophe.

Workers, families and young people cannot afford these rents. They do not stand a chance of saving a deposit to buy their own home. Renters are hanging on now by a thread. Why? This is happening because the Government recycles policies that favour developers, wealthy investors and big landlords over ordinary people. We need only look at what it is doing. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has given landlords the green light to increase rents even further in the midst of this crisis. The Government bends over backwards with sweetheart tax deals and roadshows for cuckoo funds that drive rents through the roof and, by the way, pay no tax on their rental income. The Government did nothing in its budget to help renters. These are the choices it has made and renters are now paying a very heavy price.

There are alternatives that would make a big difference.

Sinn Féin has asked the Taoiseach time and again to cut rents by putting one month's rent back into renters' pockets through a tax credit. He said no. We asked him to ban rent increases for three years. He said no. Now, here we are, with renters staring into the abyss and their lives on hold and aspirations curtailed, unable to plan for the future because many of them do not know whether they will make it to the end of the month. That is the reality and it must change. If the Taoiseach does not show up for renters today, he never will. Tá an ghéarchéim cíosa ina tubaiste faoi fhaire an Taoisigh. Tá mé ag impí air an treo a athrú. Ní mór gníomhú práinneach a dhéanamh chun cíosanna a ghearradh agus cosc a chur ar mhéaduithe cíosa i gcomhair trí bliana. I ask the Taoiseach to act. I ask him to cut rents and ban rent increases for three years. I ask him to do both of these things urgently. No more blah blah blah, kicking for touch or talking down the clock. I ask him to show up and give renters the break they need or make way for a Government that will.

The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, through the Housing for All strategy, has given the most comprehensive and substantive housing programme which will lead to increased supply. The bottom line is the most fundamental way we can ease pressures on rent - there is no question of there being pressures on renters - and the most effective way to deal with it is to increase supply. We had two lockdowns since the commencement of Covid. That hit supply in 2020. It has hit supply in 2021, although we are making a significant comeback on commencements. Commencement notice data showed September commencements increased by 48% on August figures. In the year to September 2021, 30, 519 residential units were commenced, which is up 40% year on year, when compared to the same period to September 2020. Significant momentum is building up in the house construction sector, which we need to get to the average of 33,000 completions per annum. That is a central part of Housing for All.

That will involve the State intervening, as provided for in budget 2021, for affordable housing and cost rental homes to be delivered, of which up to 1,580 are to be delivered next year by approved local housing bodies, local authorities and the Land Development Agency. More than 1,100 social housing homes are to be provided. The emphasis of Government policy is to increase supply across the board, in social, affordable and cost rental housing and to bring back voids, which we have done at an unprecedented rate in the past 18 months. There is no question of the number of voids which have been brought back and the funding given to local authorities to create additional homes in the social sphere, along with working with the approved housing bodies in terms of homelessness and new social housing builds.

In the interim, five pieces of legislation have already passed on protecting security of tenure for tenants and restricting rent increases. Up to quite recently inflation was below 1%. However, inflation has gone up globally so the Minister will now provide for a maximum limit of 2% increases in rent or inflation, whichever is the lower and for an unlimited duration in terms of tenancies. Substantial protection of tenants has been realised by the Minister through a variety of legislation he has passed. Fundamentally, supply is the key and all of us in this House have a responsibility to do everything we possibly can to facilitate supply of housing.

Too many schemes are being left there and deliberated upon by councils, schemes as large as 750 houses in Dublin City Council. It seems they are going on forever. I cannot reconcile all of the angst and anger in here about housing and party colleagues of Deputy McDonald and others, on Dublin City Council, saying no to substantial housing projects because of their mixed nature, be it affordable or some private and some social. It is just not good enough and cannot be sustained. We need to push on ahead, get projects delivered and housing provided for people because that is the most effective way to deal with the rent issue, in addition to the restrictive measures the Minister has and will introduce on the 2% maximum limit.

The Taoiseach's policy and his Minister are failing. Supply is, of course, the issue and that is why the Taoiseach should have embraced the ESRI recommendation to double capital investment in the delivery of homes, but he did not do that. His top economist trashed that report. I ask him not to lecture me or anyone else on the Opposition benches on the issue of supply, while simultaneously allowing a high-ranking Government official to undermine the argument for supplying the resources to underpin it. I do not know if the Taoiseach heard the figures I gave to him. There has been a 20% increase in rents in some Connacht counties and an increase of almost 20% in Munster. I have asked the Taoiseach very simply to take actions that would make the world of difference now to the 300,000 renters in this State. I am asking him to introduce measures that will cut their rents now - cut their rents - not allow for a further increase and I have asked him to introduce a measure to ban increases for three years. Here is the truth: that is what needs to needs to happen. I want him to answer straightforwardly whether he will do those two things. Yes or no?

I have looked at Sinn Féin's policies in Northern Ireland. Deputy McDonald's colleague, the minister, Ms Harrigy MLA, has the responsibility. It is interesting to see we are far more advanced in our legislation on protecting renters than the Sinn Féin minister on the Northern Ireland Executive is. Everything Deputy McDonald has criticised here-----

Blah, blah, blah. I ask the Taoiseach to answer the question.

-----Sinn Féin is doing in Northern Ireland and to a lesser extent than we are doing here. Sinn Féin's proposals would not result in a cutting of rent whatsoever and the substance behind the policies it has advanced is fairly threadbare. The approach the Minister has taken on supply and protecting tenants, which Deputies had asked for in this House, has and will be provided for-----

That is why we have increases in rent of 20%.

-----in the legislation he is bringing forward-----

If that is the Taoiseach's idea of success-----

-----but the fundamental point-----

-----he is really in trouble, more trouble than even I imagined.

This is a well-worn tactic. The Opposition Leader consistently engages in abuse of the House. I have allowed the Deputy to speak, twice, without interruption, but every time I get on my feet, recently-----

The Taoiseach will not answer the question.

-----there is an ongoing tactic of intervening all the time because the microphone is live and it is being facilitated and is not correct or proper practice. The bottom line is supply is the answer. I need the co-operation of everyone in the House, including Sinn Féin on the ground, to get supply through and projects delivered.