Rents have soared to unaffordable levels in the decade that Fine Gael has been in power. The latest daft.ie report is a nightmare read for workers and families caught in the private rental trap. The report shows that new rents across the State increased by nearly 14% in 2022. All counties bar one saw double-digit increases. Some of these increases are frightening: County Mayo, up 21%; County Roscommon, up 20%; and County Galway, up 19.4%. The average rent now stands at a staggering €1,733 a month. Here, in Dublin, it is even worse, with tenants paying on average €2,293 per month. These are extortionate sums and there is worse to tell of. Apartments blocks are being built now where the asking rents will be even higher. Indeed, in my constituency there are three-bedroom apartments newly built where people are being asked to fork out nearly €4,000 a month in rent. That is €48,000 a year just for rent.

Meanwhile, what people are being offered for their hard-earned money is beyond a joke: €625 per month for a bunk bed in a room with three other people, which is the one I am showing the Taoiseach; €1,880 per month for a room the size of a parking space where you pull your bed down, which is the one I am now showing the Taoiseach; and €1,100 per month for a bedroom, use of the kitchen and a utility room, but the rest of the house, which is in County Kildare, is off limits, which is the one I am now showing the Taoiseach. This is soul-destroying stuff.

The rent crisis has had a devastating impact on the lives of an entire generation. People in their late 30s and 40s are stuck in house shares because they cannot afford to rent a place of their own. Young people are unable to move out of their parents' homes because they have not a chance of renting. So many are financially crippled by years of paying these rack-rents and are faced with the choice of moving back in with mam and dad or emigrating for their shot at a better life in another country. At the sharpest end of this crisis, thousands of families face losing the roof over their heads when the eviction ban expires in April. This is all happening because Government housing policy is failing.

Week after week, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael come in here and gaslight Ireland’s renters by telling them that their housing plan is working, but how they can make that claim to people who hand over the lion's share of their income on rent and who then see the rest of their income gobbled up by sky-high energy bills, childcare fees and grocery bills is beyond me.

Renting in Ireland means your life and aspirations are on hold. You wonder when the next rip-off hike is going to happen or when the landlord might tell you to get out. It is no way to live.

Léiríonn géarchéim na gcíosanna atá ag éirí níos measa teip polasaí tithíochta an Rialtais. Ní mór don Rialtas gníomhú anois chun cíosóirí a chosaint. Ciallaíonn sé sin cosc a chur ar arduithe cíosa agus cosc ar díbirt a shíneadh amach. Renters are now at breaking point and it is the job of the Government to protect them. I am asking the Taoiseach to do three things: first, to legislate urgently to ban rent increases for three years; second, to deliver a meaningful cut in rents by putting a month’s rent back to into tenants’ pocket through a refundable tax credit; and, third, to extend the ban on evictions until the end of the year.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as a ceist. Is é Tithíocht do Chách an plean atá againn chun úinéireacht tí a chur i bhfeidhm, a chinntiú go bhfuil rochtain ag gach duine tithíocht ar ard-chaighdeán chun cobhsaíocht a thabhairt do chíosóirí, agus chun daoine atá i mbaol a bheith gan dídean a chosaint. Is cuid dár gcultúr agus dár stair í úinéireacht tí. Ní féidir linn glacadh leis nach mbeidh daoine in ann a gcéad teach a cheannach go mbeidh siad greamaithe i laincis cíosa.

At the outset, I thank the Deputy for her question. As she knows, Housing for All is our plan. It is all about making sure people have a secure home and, ideally, a home that they own if they wish to become a homeowner. Rents in Ireland are very high and a lot of people are struggling to pay the rent and everyone on this side of the House acknowledges this. It hits hardest on people who are moving out of home for the first time, people who are returning to Ireland - about 30,000 people return to Ireland every year - as well as people who are new to the country having come here to work in our public and private sectors. The Government is acting to help. We are helping in four ways that are significant. First, there is a rent tax credit of €500 per renter, €1,000 for a couple, and €1,500 for three people sharing. We have had 170,000 applications already for this rent tax credit. We encourage people who have not applied to do so. It will cover a few weeks' rent for a lot of people and one month's rent in some cases. I hope it is something we can build on in future budgets.

Cost rental, which has been talked about for a long time and was initiated by the last Government, has been made a reality under this Government. It provides cost rental housing that people can rent with secure tenancies at a much lower rent than the market rent. We want to scale that up over the coming years and we intend to do exactly that.

There are rent pressure zones, which most renters are covered by, meaning rent increases are between 0% and 2% per year. The daft.ie report, to which the Deputy referred, shows that rents rose by about 3.8% for existing tenants - the vast majority of tenants - in the past year. This is much lower than the figure of 13.7%, which only refers to new-to-market tenancies.

In addition, the Government is helping people to buy, which is the most significant thing in my mind because we want people to become the owners of their own homes. About 70% of people in Ireland own their own home. I would like to see that figure much higher. That figure is certainly nowhere near that high for younger people. It is probably around half that figure. That is why we want to see more people buying their own home and that is why we are helping. There is the help-to-buy scheme where people get two years' of their income tax back so they can buy their own home. That is a scheme that Sinn Féin promised to take away for first-time buyers. We now have the first home scheme for people who can get a mortgage but do not have enough to buy the house. That gap can be bridged through the first home scheme, something which Sinn Féin has promised to take away if it gets into government. That is why we need to make sure these schemes stay in place.

I have just set out what is the reality for so many people.

This is now beyond crisis mode. People are paying €640 per month for a bunk bed sharing with three other people in a small bedroom. That is four people in one room. Where does this end? Where does this stop? At what point does reality dawn and do we see the necessary actions? The Taoiseach has set out what the Government has done under its plan, Housing for All. It is not working; ask any renter or anyone out there who lives in the real world and they will tell him the magnitude of his failure because they live it every single day.

I put it to the Taoiseach again that he needs to do three things. First, he needs to effectively cut rent by putting a month's rent back in every renter's pocket by means of a refundable tax credit. Second, he needs to ensure there are no further rent hikes. The rent pressure zones are not delivering that at all. Third, and I would like him to address this point in particular, the eviction ban must be extended to the end of the year. If it is not extended, not alone will we have these still soaring, disgraceful, rack-rents, but we will have a further surge in homeless which would be an intolerable situation.

We are acting on this. Just in the past few weeks, we have introduced rent tax credits at €500 per renter, €1,000 for a couple, three people sharing getting €1,500 and four people sharing getting €2,000. That is going to help people in a meaningful way with their rent costs. That is something I believe we can build on in future budgets if the public finances allow. We are also making a reality of cost-rental housing. This is something talked about for a very long time and it is now a real option for people to be able to rent securely and pay a rent that is much lower than the market rent. We need to scale that up big time over the years ahead. We are doing exactly that using the Land Development Agency, LDA, in particular, and we have the rent pressure zones. Most tenants in Ireland are covered by rent pressure zones now. These are sitting tenants and as we know from the daft.ie report, rents rose for sitting tenants by approximately 3.8% last year which is very different from what is the case for new-to-market properties. The only way we can deal with the very high rents for new-to-market properties is by increasing supply, and that means standing up to politicians and parties who oppose new developments, often opposing them specifically because they are for rent-----

A Fine Gael culture.

-----or include too many one-beds or might accommodate, to use a term Sinn Féin likes to use, "transient" tenants.

It costs €4,000 to rent on Carnlough Road in Cabra. The Taoiseach needs to come off it. He needs to get a grip.

Táimid ag bogadh ar aghaidh. Anois an Teachta Róisín Shortall.