According to daft.ie, just 17 houses are available to rent in the entire county of Tiobraid Árann today, with just one property available to rent in the largest town, Cluain Meala, a one-bedroom apartment. There are currently 3,521 people on approved housing lists waiting for housing in Tiobraid Árann. Rents in the county were on average 7.7% higher in the final three months of 2020 than they had been one year previously. The national average listed rent is now €908, up 61% from its lowest point. The property rental crisis is now at its worst point in more than a decade, with so limited a supply of housing. Tipperary County Council - agus gabhaim buíochas leo siúd atá ag obair air seo - is meeting its Rebuilding Ireland targets for 2021 and is expected to exceed its targets this year, but that is simply not sufficient to meet the demand.

Tipperary County Council delivered 840 units between 2018 and 2021 and aims to meet its new-build target of 230 units between now and the year end. Unfortunately, these targets will go nowhere near to address the acute problem that is there.

My office and, indeed, many other offices are inundated with people desperately seeking housing. Gabhaim buíochas leis na daoine ag obair i m’oifig féin freisin. People are desperate. These are families who are currently living in homes where the landlord is selling up and they cannot find alternative accommodation, applicants approved for housing but who cannot find accommodation under the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme, returning Irish emigrants who cannot find accommodation in their local areas to rent or buy and young couples - this is a big bone of contention - who have sites but who are being refused planning permission and cannot find accommodation to rent or buy either.

There is also a serious disconnect in respect of the current income limits to qualify for social housing in Tiobraid Árann. The Tipperary County Council cap is €25,000 for a single person and €27,500 for an average family of two adults and two children - a figure that has not been reviewed since 2011. I am calling on the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, the Taoiseach and the Cabinet to review this immediately. It is causing a considerable problem, especially when we see that an average four-bedroom house in the county costs approximately €2,100 per month to rent, meaning that a family with an income of €28,000 is expected to pay 51% of their income on rent without any assistance. Tá sé sin uafásach ar fad. In the face of the significant increase in rent in the county and across the country, as well as the considerable increases in the cost of living, these limits are wholly inappropriate and need to be reviewed urgently. I reiterate I am calling on the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and on the Government as a whole, to act here. We keep talking and having aspirations and good intentions but they are not being delivered. People cannot afford or they cannot get HAP. There are people sleeping in tents beside the River Suir in the beautiful Cluain Meala and I meet them on the street. I am sure other Deputies also do so in all the counties. The policies that the Government has, with not cutting timber and the insulation costs as a result of oil prices and carbon taxes, are driving up the cost of building. We are in a perfect storm. We need action and we need it now.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. The issues concerning housing in Tipperary are ones that are reflected across the entire country. The only response to it is a sustainable comprehensive one, which is what the Government has provided in the form of Housing for All.

Housing for All provides a comprehensive set of measures and targets with financial backing to increase housing supply. That is the most fundamental thing we can do in relation to the housing situation, which is difficult and challenging for many people, particularly the scarcity of supply.

Basically, Housing for All is committing to the creation on average of 33,000 homes per annum over the lifetime of the plan. We have had setbacks with Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021, in terms of the lockdowns which slowed down construction in housing, but there has been a very significant rebound since then, with 31,000 commencements in the year to January 2022, which is a 48.4% increase year on year. That is the highest rolling 12-month total since comparable data were first published. Construction of 1,861 homes commenced in January 2022. That figure is up 35% on January 2021.

Approximately 20,400 houses were completed in 2021, while the number of apartments completed increased by over 30% for the year. Progress is being made and we have got to make much, much more. It really is about supply on the house construction side, and then a variety of offers to people including affordable housing, in terms of the local authorities supporting affordable housing with State backing, social housing, of which we want to construct up to 10,000 annual with the approved social housing bodies and the local authorities, cost rental, which will be increasingly more significant as an option for people and we want to develop a critical mass of supply on the cost rental front, as well as giving supports to help to buy through the shared equity scheme to young first-time buyers. Last year, approximately 46,000 homes were purchased, with over 30% of these being bought by first-time buyers.

Approximately 40,000 planning permissions were granted up to quarter 3 in 2021.

HAP is a huge provision from the State. At the end of quarter 3 in 2021, over 97,500 HAP tenancies had been set up since the scheme commenced. This comprises more than 62,000 households actively in receipt of HAP support and over 33,400 separate landlords and agents providing accommodation to households supported by the scheme. Budget 2022 allocated €585 million in Exchequer funding for the HAP scheme. That will enable a further projected 14,000 households to be supported, in addition to the supports to existing recipients.

There are facilities whereby each local authority has statutory discretion to agree to a HAP payment of up to 20% above the prescribed maximum rent limit to secure appropriate accommodation for a household that requires it.

In my considered opinion, HAP has been an unmitigated disaster. Billions have been spent on it which should have been used to build houses. We need to get off that particular road, an bóthar uafásach, as I said. The situation is desperate. While the Government talks of great intentions, when it comes to building houses we need further immediate action for young people, na daoine óga. Many of the Government's policies, especially since the Taoiseach hitched up in a marriage or threesome with the Greens, are leading directly to a limited supply. Young couples who want to build on their own land cannot get planning permission. The Government will not let them cut a cipín not to mind a tree. Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmad? It is so sad. Then there is the price of building. We do not have enough apprentices. The Taoiseach referred to starts. Are there ESB connections? Is it when everything is finished and the ESB has approved the turning on of the electricity? The Government is playing with people's lives here and playing with figures. Builders cannot get tradesmen or supplies. A young couple, or any couple, cannot get a quotation for less than a week now because building suppliers will not give it to them, because they cannot due to the escalating costs. It is backwards we are going. The sense of meitheal, tá sé imithe. Is mór an trua é sin.