Two reports that came out today are damning of the Government’s housing policy. The latest rental report from daft.ie shows that rip-off rents were up another staggering 10% in the final three months of last year. New figures also reveal that cuckoo funds, courtesy of sweetheart tax deals provided by the Government, massively outbid ordinary house buyers for family homes and then rent them back to those people at extortionate rates.

On the Taoiseach's watch, affordability has gone out the window. These rack rents mean that people have no breathing room to save for a deposit. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have made homeownership a pipe dream for an entire generation and a nightmare for those desperately seeking to put a roof over their heads.

In October's budget, the Taoiseach did nothing for renters - zero, zilch, nada - and this has to change fast. The cost-of-living measures the Taoiseach says he will introduce must include cutting rents and banning rent increases for three years. Ripped-off renters need relief now.

The average rent in the last three months of 2021 was a whopping €1,524, and it was more than €2,000 in Dublin. Let us take a second for that to sink in. There are double-digit increases in 20 counties, up by 20% or more in every county in Connacht, so clearly the rent cap of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is a failure.

In December, the Taoiseach said the role of cuckoo funds in wrecking the housing market was being exaggerated. However, his claim was simply untrue, and it does not tally with the facts that 4,900 family homes were bulk-purchased by these very funds last year and that they outbid ordinary homebuyers by up to 32%. It is past time that the Government took action on these funds. They are a key driver in pushing rents up to record levels. People are forced to pay rip-off rents before they get to pay their energy bills, put food on the table or meet the cost of childcare. Many renters are left with literally nothing at the end of the month, so is it any wonder that Generation Rent feels battered, bruised, exhausted and sold out?

The daft.ie report shows the Government is failing on supply. The number of homes available to rent is at its lowest in 15 years and, therefore, we should not be surprised that landlords get away with charging big money, sometimes to live in places where your feet could literally touch your fridge while you are lying in your bed. This is a social disaster. It is unfolding on the Government's watch. Rip-off rents rob a generation of a decent life and the ability to build their future. This cannot continue. We need action now. Renters do not have the luxury of waiting on the never–never for the Government to deliver on supply. Is tubaiste sóisialta iad na cíosanna atá as smacht. Tá glúin iomlán ann atá níos measa as ná riamh, agus tá sé ag dul in olcas. Caithfidh an Rialtas cíosanna a ghearradh agus cosc a chur ar arduithe ar feadh trí bliana.

I have been asking Taoiseach until blue in the face to cut rents by means of a tax credit, putting €1,500 back into renters' pockets, and to ban rent increases for three years. He could have done this at budget time but chose not to. I now urge him to do these very things as part of the cost-of-living package he promised. He should take this opportunity to finally make a difference for the renters of Ireland.

I thank the Deputy for raising the question and the issue. The Government came into office more than a year and a half ago, and I have made it clear that housing is the key social issue facing our country and society. Ireland needs, on average, 33,000 homes constructed per annum right out until 2030. These homes are needed to satisfy demand for housing across all four types of tenure: affordable, social, private rental and private ownership. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, in the context of the Housing for All strategy, has broken down the tenure types as follows in respect of our objectives: 11,800 new privately owned homes; 6,500 new private rental homes; 4,100 new affordable homes; and 10,300 new social housing homes. Therefore, the State is investing the largest amount of capital ever in social and affordable housing, with clear targets to reach the figure of 33,000, which we desperately need to get to. Supply is a bit like last year and the year before because of Covid. There is a need in the market and there will be demand in the market for 6,500 new private rental homes per year. If the market supplies fewer than that number, rents will rise even further. We cannot wish away the basic law of supply and demand. We need more supply, and we need it as quickly as possible.

I have been very consistent and open in the House in saying the State sector will invest in an unprecedented way in social and affordable houses. We will also need private investment to make sure we reach the target of 33,000 across all four types of housing we want, from cost-rental and affordable housing to social and private housing.

With respect to funds, including institutional funds, we have already passed planning laws and introduced taxation measures to stop the bulk-buying of houses and homes in the State. The Deputy knows that. That is the position. An Bord Pleanála has followed up on that with recent decisions, copper-fastening the legislative changes the Minister has made. It is basically about supply. I am aware that the Deputy may not agree and does not like me raising the issue of supply. People are objecting to various projects on an ongoing basis. If we believe there is a crisis, as I do, we do not have the luxury of consistently opposing planning applications for social, affordable and private housing. The Deputy opposed 1,100 rental homes on Clonliffe Road. She may have had good reasons for doing so, but I find it hard to reconcile the definition of a "crisis" with wholesale serial objections to projects that would supply homes that are badly needed.

The Taoiseach's party in Limerick-----

The Taoiseach, without interruption.

The answer is more supply. We need more supply and to build more houses. A total of 20,000 were completed last year, when the Covid lockdown hit us, and we hope to reach a figure of 25,000 in 2022. However, the target in Housing for All is to get to 33,000 houses every year. That is what we need to get to. We need it across all types of housing: private housing, public housing to an unprecedented degree, affordable housing and cost-rental housing.

Deputy McDonald quoted daft.ie. On the key page, the author states, "As ever, the solution remains in the construction of large numbers of market- and cost-rental housing to cater for tenants of all incomes." That is the conclusion on what is required. I know it is very difficult for people. The Housing for All strategy is the correct strategy. The investment is available from the public side. I have seen no real substantive alternatives on the supply issue coming from anybody. We have gone through the figures with all the people involved.

The Taoiseach is relying on the private sector; that is his problem.

There has been a detailed dive in the policy underpinning Housing for All regarding the various tenure types. We now need to get on with it and allow the houses to be built. That is a sincere point I am making. If we all agree this is a crisis, we are not going to solve it with 20,000 or 25,000 units per year; we need 33,000, at a minimum, per year.

The Taoiseach does not need to do any kind of deep dive just to come across these figures. A rent of €1,500 or €2,000 per month is simply unaffordable. It seems that he does not actually understand what is happening. He seems to be suggesting the funds build the houses in question; they do not.

No.

They acquire them, and they do so by outbidding ordinary families and workers who simply want to purchase a home and put a roof over their heads. That is what is happening. Does the Taoiseach know what his policy is doing? It is making a bad situation worse. It is demonstrating that the wrong kind of supply can actually make the situation worse.

The average renters find themselves in a nightmare of the Government's construction. They are being fleeced for high rent by the funds that have sweetheart and favourable arrangements with the Government, and they are unable to accumulate a deposit and advance in their lives.

It is outrageous. It strikes me that the Taoiseach is happy to come in and recite big figures, but never actually get to the root of the issue or deal with the day-to-day reality that people cannot make their rent. I put it to the Taoiseach again that, as part of the Government's cost of living package, he should cut rents by means of a tax credit and, for God's sake, put a ban on runaway rent increases for three years. I ask the Taoiseach to do those things for the renters of this country.

There is no doubt in my mind that Sinn Féin's policies would restrict rental supply in the next number of years-----

That is because you do not understand them.

-----and would actually cause rents to go up. The Deputy knows that. She mentioned houses. She knows well we have already taken steps, both legislative and through taxation, that do not allow for bulk buying of houses and for homes in housing estates.

It does.

It does not, and the Deputy knows it.

Apartments-----

An Bord Pleanála has followed up in terms of recent decisions in relation to that. The Mullen Park project in Maynooth did not proceed. We are talking here about the other report that was referenced this morning in terms of apartments and so on. That is the context. There cannot be bulk buying of houses and homes and so on in this State.

Apartments are homes.

I know that.

The Taoiseach does not understand it.

I do understand it.

Apartments are homes.

I think the fundamental point is one of supply. Sinn Féin has consistently ignored it, because it is playing the political sloganeering game. It is into exploiting the issue for sake of electoral gain. I know that.

It is about affordable supply and the right supply.

Please, Deputy. Let the Taoiseach answer.

The real issue in supply is that at different times and different stages, the Sinn Féin spokesman and others will advocate for private developments and say they want them. What we are saying in Housing for All is that 33,000 houses are required. Social housing of up to 10,000 units will be required and we are providing funding for it. It is likewise, with affordable housing. There will also be a need for private rental. If we restrict supply, the rents will go up, as sure as night follows day.

They are going up every year.

We need supply.

There are 5,000 homeless on the Taoiseach's watch.

What we do not need are serial objections, as the Deputy's party have made, to developments in Tallaght, Donabate and right across.

Seriously? You have nothing to say to them.

Sinn Féin has objected to the building of around 6,000 houses.

That is not true.

It has objected to them and voted against them being built. That, to me, is hypocrisy-----

Appalling dishonesty on the floor of the Oireachtas from the Taoiseach.

-----when put in contrast with the huge crisis that we have in terms of housing supply.

The party that objects to most houses in the State is Fianna Fáil.

Please, Deputy Ó Broin.

I am fed up of this Taoiseach lying about what Sinn Féin councillors are doing.

Please, do not accuse the Taoiseach.

They are downright lies.

It is not acceptable to accuse any Member-----

It is not acceptable to mislead the public and it is not acceptable to have rising rents.

It is not acceptable to accuse any Member of the House of lying. I ask the Deputy to withdraw that claim.

I absolutely will not withdraw it. It is dishonest.

You will be taking a walk.

Please withdraw the accusation of lying.

I have no intention of----

It is out of order. The Deputy knows it is out of order.

The Taoiseach is misleading the House.

Is the Deputy substituting his claim with "misleading the House"?

I am more than happy to substitute "willingly misleading the House" for "lying".

Thank you.

It is the same thing, Taoiseach.

I call Deputy Catherine Murphy. Can we please restore some order for the Deputy?

What does the Taoiseach have to say to workers and their families today who are desperately trying to save to buy their own home? He can hardly tell them to stop complaining or to shop around. Cuckoo funds are outbidding household buyers by as much as 32%, paying on average €105,000 more per property than household buyers. Ordinary workers can shop around for an eternity, but increasingly they feel they are chasing shadows. They will never be able to outbid the cuckoo funds that are swooping in and snatching the homes they hope to buy. This is not just happening in the build-to-rent sector, the sector designed specifically by Government to be bought exclusively by cuckoo funds. Last year, these funds spent €2.27 billion acquiring nearly 5,000 properties for use in the private rental sector. In some cases, the funds are buying these homes and leasing them back to local authorities that reward them with guaranteed extortionate rents, in some cases for up to 25 years, before they get the keys back. Again, this has been deliberately facilitated by Government policy. The Government voted to slash the stamp duty for cuckoo funds if they leased the homes back to local authorities. We warned the Government at the time that this would be the result, but it went ahead anyway.

The head of research of BNP Paribas Real Estate Ireland, John McCarthy, has explained further that "[cuckoo funds] believe that rents are well underpinned by existing market imbalances and Ireland's demographic potential". In other words, the rental market is so utterly broken and dysfunctional, these funds do not believe that sky-high rents are going to come down any time soon. Ireland has a young population who are going to be condemned to continue to pay crippling rents for the foreseeable future.

Rents are now 50% higher than they were during the Celtic tiger peak. What level does the Taoiseach think is sustainable? In Dublin, rents went up by 4% in just the last three months of 2021. Nationally, year on year, they went up by 10%, with 20 counties seeing a double-digit increase. Rents increased by 25% in County Donegal. Meanwhile, the Government insists the rent caps, which are now set at a 2%, are working. It is plainly obvious the rent caps are not working. The Government has to be straight with people. Most people believe this is out of control. The Taoiseach is going to have to tell us how he will get control of this. Does he accept the Government has incentivised the disaster by rewarding the cuckoo funds with tax breaks for buying what would normally be family homes? Does he accept rent caps are not working? Will he immediately bring in a three-year ban on rent increases? We really need to see an eviction freeze. There is a serious problem with evictions coming down the track.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Again, the issue is a very serious one. Rents are too high for people. There are not enough houses out there. We can see from the from the Daft report there are not enough apartments to rent. There is not enough housing out there to buy. The whole purpose of the Government policy over the past 12 months and since we came into office has been to increase the supply of housing dramatically. A total of 31,000 starts happened in 2021. That is the highest number of housing starts since 2008. We are going to continue with that acceleration of house building if we are allowed and if people just remove the obstacles and allow us to get housing and apartments built.

We are going to have to build different types of housing. There will be a very large public housing programme. We want more than 10,300 on average as part of that 33,000 overall houses to be built every year. We want to get up to that 33,000 target. Supply is key here. People can rightly raise the issue and so on, but equally, we need solutions. I am talking about solutions in terms of supply and the type of housing we provide and to enable people to afford housing. Cost rental is one of those models that is developing and is in its infancy in this country. I predict the cost rental model, which can offer a very substantial rent reductions below the market, will accelerate and be enhanced due to Government efforts in working with local authorities and others. Social housing is going to increase year on year, and specifically, direct builds. We are phasing out the leasing. We will increase direct builds on an unprecedented scale. Also, there will be 4,000-plus affordable houses built. That is what the State can do, but the private sector will be involved as well. It will also be providing housing and apartments, as has always been the case.

The one thing we cannot do is inhibit supply. It is easy to be political about this. I understand it fully and I have no issue with it, but I have to make sure we introduce the right policies for the long haul. We cannot develop housing policy on the basis of the outcome of the next election and who wins it or who does not. We now have to get a consistent housing policy that lasts the decade and brings stability to the market. The market is not stable right now; the rents are too high. However, a lot of thought has gone into this from people just outside of politicians in terms of what we need to do. I believe in a strong social housing programme and it is happening now. I believe in the idea of affordability and that we should help from the State perspective. I believe in the idea of cost rental. However, I also believe that we need private sector investment as well. I think the Deputies in opposition need to speak out on that. Do they believe in private sector investment at all in the housing market or is it their view we should continue the decline in the number of landlords? They are leaving the market. We do not have enough rental properties. We do not have enough houses built for people to buy. We want more owner-occupiers. We want to give people the chance to buy their homes, which is why the shared equity and help-to-buy schemes and so on are coming in. There are huge issues here, and I acknowledge that. However, we need to be solution focused in terms of how we get to grips with it.

Let me address the issue of private sector investment. Of course it has its place. It is a big part of the solution but it has to have constraints put on it. The Taoiseach stated that he has spoken to a lot of people in terms of designing the solution. I am wondering who he has been speaking to because the solution that has been designed really favours cuckoo funds over individual home buyers.

Hear, hear.

That is the obvious thing that is happening here. Does he ever question that he could be getting this wrong? Fianna Fáil has got it wrong before. Does he ever question that he is talking to the wrong people or taking the wrong advice? Look at the evidence. Look at the evidence of rental costs. Who can afford €2,000 a month in rent in perpetuity? It is only going to be a question of time before we see young people queueing up at airports to leave this country.

Absolutely.

They will do so because they cannot live in it. Housing is critical to that. For the past decade, I have been speaking about the need to build social housing. When the housing assistance payment, HAP, was brought in, I said it would be a disaster if it was not accompanied by a big housebuilding programme and it would become a dominant feature with the amount of State money that went into it. I am sick to death of predicting things that turn out to be right. Perhaps the Taoiseach might listen to some of us rather than saying the same thing. We know we need supply, but we need affordable supply.

Hear, hear.

This is not working and anyone looking at those statistics knows it is not working.

I have been a long-standing advocate for social housing, along with the Deputy, even when I was in opposition. We are now looking at an unprecedented social housing programme. It is going to take time to build but it is happening right now.

I have been listening to that since 2012.

There were 31,000 starts last year. I accept and am glad the Deputy acknowledged the need for private sector investment. It does need to be constrained. We have already brought in planning constraints on funds in terms of housing estates and being able to bulk buy. They cannot do so. From a taxation perspective and a planning position, that has happened. In terms of apartment building, there has been a huge issue for some time in terms of the whole issue around viability of apartment building. The daft.ie report and the BNP Paribas report state that, basically, if that funding was not available, those apartments would never have been built in the first place. We have an issue with apartments - there is no question about that - in terms of viability, particularly in terms of brownfield sites and trying to get compact living. That is all part of Housing for All and that is why the Croí Cónaithe fund is being established - to see if the State can help in terms of creating viability and affordability in that apartment sector. That is clearly a challenge but, again, let us be clear that we have to be very careful we do not inhibit supply even more in terms of just responding to the short-term issues.