Tá impleachtaí anois ag an ngéarchéim tithíochta do chomhlachtaí agus do sheirbhísí poiblí, dár scoileanna agus dár n-ospidéil, ar fud an Stáit. Níl altraí ábalta tithíocht a fháil in aice leis na hospidéil ina n-oibríonn siad. Tá altraí sa tír seo againn anois a chaitheann leath dá gcuid pá ar chíos achan mhí agus go minic ar thithíocht atá mí-oiriúnach, agus tá go leor daoine ann nach bhfuil ábalta fiú amháin áit chónaithe a fháil ar chor ar bith. The Government's housing disaster is now leading to a staff crisis for business and our public services, including schools and hospitals. Teachers and nurses are unable to afford housing near the schools in which they teach and the hospitals in which they work. A recent survey carried out by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, found that two out of three nursing graduates are considering emigrating, with one in three considering leaving our cities. We now have nurses spending half their salaries on extortionate rents, often in unsuitable accommodation, with many not able to find a place at all. We cannot open additional beds if we do not have the nurses to staff them. Our nurses should be able to look forward to a future in which they can build lives for themselves at home, but thousands of nurses do not have that opportunity.

Many of them have written to Sinn Féin in recent weeks to share their heartbreaking experience of struggling to get by. Reading through what they have told us, one can see very clearly that they are exhausted, anxious and overwhelmed with stress, they struggle to find accommodation, they fork out extortionate sums on rent every month and they worry endlessly about their future. Sadly, many of them see no light at the end of the tunnel. They have written to us of their worries about being forced to emigrate just to have a decent quality of life. I will give the Tánaiste a couple of examples.

A 21-year-old student nurse in her final year in Limerick told us in her own words:

Last year I was homeless for the first semester of college as my accommodation fell through last minute. I wasted all my savings staying in hotels to attend my lectures and then had to sofa surf.

I couldn’t afford much else during this time and didn’t have facilities to cook my own food in hotels. I lost so much weight due to this and the stress… I’m currently looking for different accommodation to move out before Christmas but it’s proving impossible to even get a response from landlords.

As soon as I qualify I will be leaving the country, along with most of my classmates, as the stress is genuinely not worth staying. All I want is a secure place to live.

Another nurse wrote to us. She is from County Louth. She wrote:

I’m 33 and my husband is 34. We both live in the garage of my parents’ house. We will never be able to afford our own home.

We’re emigrating next year for good. It’s a shame as Ireland is such a beautiful country, it’s our home.

I could put dozens more heartbreaking letters like that on the public record. These people are qualified and trained. They want to look after patients and want to provide for our health service but they see no future as a result of the housing crisis the Tánaiste and his party have caused and sustained. These nurses have told us of their anxiety. Many of them have told us they do not see a future here. However, the Tánaiste has told these nurses in the past that he knows better. He has lectured them like he has other public sector workers and other young people who have decided to emigrate. He has told them that the grass is not always greener on the other side. However, no one really knows the reality these nurses are living or the difficulties they face better than themselves. The housing crisis is wearing them down. It is forcing them out of this country to seek a better future for themselves. The facts are blatantly obvious for anybody to see.

When will the penny drop? When will the Government take action? This is no longer a housing crisis; this is a social crisis. This is creeping into every sphere of Irish society, from education to health to business. When will the Government introduce a three-year ban on rent increases, as we have been calling for for many years, to ensure that a month's rent is put back into renters' pockets through a refundable tax credit?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue and for sharing some of the stories and experiences he has put on the record of the House. To be very clear once again, absolutely everyone on this side of the House, including everyone in government, accepts that we have a deep crisis when it comes to housing. We have seen a big increase in our population and we have an economy that is growing very fast. New households are being formed every day and we have not been able to build enough new homes and apartments to keep up with that increasing demand over the past ten years. We acknowledge that has led to a very deep social crisis that is affecting our country as well as a very deep personal crisis for many people. We see it manifest in lots of different ways, including very high rents that people have to pay and younger people - and not just younger people - struggling to buy their first home. We see it in homelessness now rising again. We also see it, as the Deputy outlined, in some of the difficulties the public sector, including the health service and the education system, and private companies are having in recruiting and retaining staff, particularly in Dublin and our cities, but not exclusively there.

There has been some real progress, and it would be unfair not to acknowledge it. We anticipate that this year we will build approximately 28,000 new homes. That is more than any year in maybe ten years, and that does not include derelict homes being brought back into use or student accommodation. That is the kind of figure we expect we will achieve this year. It is not enough but it is more new homes than in any year in the past ten. In the past 12 months, 16,000 first-time buyers - they are not just statistics; they are people, couples, families - bought their own home. That is more than any year in the past 15. One would have to go back to 2005, 2006 or 2007 before seeing that many people buying their first home. That is progress but I acknowledge that it is not enough. It is nowhere near enough, and we need to do much better to turn the corner on housing in the months and years ahead. We are introducing the rent tax credit. That will be available for people to claim in the next couple of weeks, I believe. It is something the Deputy and his party advocated for a long time. We have agreed to do that. It is worth €1,000 per renter, provided he or she is paying income tax. For two people, a couple, renting a house, that is €2,000. In a lot of cases that will be a month's rent back into people's pockets. Three people renting a house or an apartment will get €3,000 between the three of them, and, therefore, in a lot of cases it will be a month's rent back into people's pockets - sometimes more, sometimes less. That is something we are doing and people will see that money in the period ahead.

When it comes to nurses specifically, we have a pay agreement with the public service that will pay increases for nurses and other public servants over the next year. We have the rent tax credit I mentioned and the new form of cost-rental housing, whereby the Government provides rental housing at a below-market cost. That can make a big difference too.

When it comes to a rent freeze, we have rent pressure zones, as the Deputy will be aware. The figures from daft.ie, for example, and the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, show that for people who are established tenants and who have somewhere to rent already, rents went up by approximately 2.5% last year. The real problem is the new tenancies, that is, new properties coming to the market. A rent freeze would not affect them because they are being let for the first time. There are just not enough of them, and that is why the price of them is too high. The solution has to be mostly about supply, although not all about supply. We have to do everything possible to increase supply over the coming months and years and to stem the exodus of small landlords from the market, which is a big part of the problem as well.

The Tánaiste talked about pay agreements and so on. Half the nurses in this State did not get the pay increase to which they were entitled that other public sector workers got in October. That is how we are treating nurses.

The issue of rents and housing is at crisis point. The Tánaiste said the Government is not doing enough. I put it to him that so many people are emigrating because they see no hope his Government will change track.

For 12 years, Fine Gael has been in government. For 12 years, individuals, be they nurses or teachers, have seen the housing crisis deteriorate. Homelessness figures have never been as high with 11,000 people homeless while rents and house prices have never been as high. We are seeing indicators of commencements dropping off significantly over the past number of months. For many years, we have been calling on the Government to introduce a rent freeze to make sure rents remain at their current level and put a month's rent back into renters' pockets. When we put this proposition to the Government first, the Tánaiste defended the income of landlords. He said that one person's rent is a landlord's income.

The point we are making is that this is not just a housing crisis; this is a crisis in health and education. The INMO has pointed out that 46% of graduates in a major hospital in Dublin are leaving. They are not staying. This is on the Government's watch. Can the Tánaiste give us some confidence that there will be a change of direction? Will it introduce a rent freeze for three years and will it stop these extortionate rents increasing year on year?

Pay increases for all public servants kicked in in October and have been backdated to February. They have been paid to the vast majority of public servants but I acknowledge that has not been the case in large parts of our health service. I met with the unions during the week. I met the head of the INMO, Ms Phil Ni Sheaghdha, and the head of ICTU and they raised this issue. We agree that it is not acceptable that people who work in our health service did not get their pay increase at the same time as civil servants, teachers, gardaí and everyone else so we are working on that. The Deputy knows that payroll systems in the health service do not operate the way they should. It is our responsibility to fix that and we are working on that. We can guarantee people that they will get that payment, even if it is late.

Regarding the Deputy's proposals, the rent tax credit will be a month's rent back in renters' pockets in many cases.

No, it will not.

It will.

It is €500 per year.

It is €1,000 per renter, €2,000 for a couple and up to €3,000 for three people renting because renters get it for this year and last year.

It is €500 per year. Stop misleading the Dáil.