In calling Deputy Catherine Murphy, I acknowledge that she and Deputy Shortall enjoy widespread respect across the House. I wish them well in the next phase of their careers.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and Deputy Cullinane. I, too, utterly condemn the shooting of the policeman in Omagh last night. It was truly shocking and unacceptable. Our thoughts are with him and his family and we hope for his recovery. We had all hoped that incidents like this were a thing of the past. Such incidents are a reminder that we cannot take peace for granted.

At the end of next month, the eviction ban will expire unless a decision is taken to extend it. The first thing one does in a crisis is to not make that crisis worse. There is a real fear that this is exactly what is about to happen. We can all see that every week in our constituency offices. Housing, homelessness and the prospect of homelessness constitute the number one issue. In January, nearly 12,000 people were living in emergency accommodation. In Dublin alone, nearly 3,000 households became homeless last year.

Increasingly, people are arriving at our offices in a state of panic. It might be a couple working and paying rent or an individual or family who would qualify for the housing assistance payment if they could get their application processed. The conversation is not terribly different, no matter who is having it, and it is not unusual for people to end up in tears. They have a notice to quit and cannot find alternative accommodation. Even if they could, they cannot afford it. They usually say to us that they never expected that homelessness was something that would happen to people like them. They talk about the stress and the panic. They often talk about how it is impacting their children. The ban on evictions has postponed the inevitable for many but the cliff edge is getting ever nearer. Like many Deputies, I see people who are desperately trying to deal with the fact that they are homeless. They often feel that their lives are on hold. The stress and desperation are obvious. The loss of hope and independence is very real. It is not unusual to have someone tell us that they feel they are a total failure.

In many ways, we have got to a stage where the outrage has disappeared and homelessness has almost become normalised, but there is nothing normal about it. I accept that there is a balance of rights. When we talk about that balance, however, I am of the view that those who are already homeless and those who are facing becoming homeless have to be seen as real people who have been failed and who are damaged. That has to be factored into the balance of rights too. The Tánaiste needs to tell us what exactly the Government is contemplating. Earlier this week, the Taoiseach stated that he is not convinced the eviction ban is working. That is because he sees that the numbers of people who are becoming homeless have increased despite the ban. I thought those comments were instructive. Most people assessing the situation would infer that, without the eviction ban, the floodgates on homelessness would really be opened and that what is a trickle would become a torrent. Does the Tánaiste accept there is a need for an extension of the eviction ban? If he does not accept that, what does he propose to put in place for the additional people who will become homeless? Why was it not planned, because we knew this was a temporary eviction ban?

First, I wish the Deputy well. This may or may not be the last occasion on which we have an opportunity for questions on a Thursday morning, but I thank her for her courtesy and respect in her capacity as leader. I thank her and her colleague, Deputy Shortall, for their commitment to the public good and public interest as leaders of their party. Through very challenging times during Covid-19 and so on, they put the nation first ahead of their party. I will always appreciate that. The public health interest in particular was always a key consideration of theirs and I appreciated that.

In respect of the eviction ban, the Government is examining this not just from a legal perspective but from a policy perspective also. Deputy Catherine Murphy has connected this to homelessness correctly, but the broader picture is supply of housing and supply of units for rental and to be rented. The fundamental policy issue we have to consider is if we extend it, and I do not think we could extend it for a short term because we need to be honest with the market and with those who are renting as well, what would the impact of that be on supply? Would it make it worse? I put that honestly to the Deputy. Politically, the simple catch cry is "extend the ban, extend the ban" and then worry about the consequences later or indeed the consequences would be the Government's problem and the Government's fault in the sense of policy research coming back saying we risk reducing supply and we risk increasing rents as a consequence of reducing supply and it makes matters worse.

The parallel with that is that we have increased supply through building houses. The State is the biggest actor in house building at the moment. Through financial supports given to approved social housing bodies, local authorities, cost-rental schemes, Croí Cónaithe, Project Tosaigh, and help to buy, there are a variety of schemes. The first home scheme is proving to be extremely popular with more than 3,000 registrations now. Some 30,000 homes were completed last year, which is an increase of 10,000 on the previous year, and the largest since 2008.

On the other hand, the eviction ban did work during the winter period. We had a particular argument over the winter period because of the crisis caused by the energy situation which gave a very solid legal basis to a winter emergency ban on evictions, because of the position people found themselves in on a number of fronts particularly on inflation and the energy crisis itself. All of those issues will be evaluated by the Government and we will make the decision prior to the expiry date of the ban. Of course the new law we introduced in the context of the eviction ban staggered the end of the protections afforded in the legislation out to June in order to ensure there would be no cliff-edge impact on 1 April. We are giving this very serious consideration from a policy point of view and are mindful of some of the negatives it could have on the wider sector.

I thank the Tánaiste for his good wishes on behalf of Deputy Shortall and myself. They are very much appreciated.

When this eviction ban was put in place there was a recognition of an emergency and it was said at the time that it is one thing putting an eviction ban in place but there needs to be a plan if this eviction ban will end and it was time-limited. It does not feel like there is a plan of action for the end of this. In a crisis, the number one thing is not to make that crisis any worse, and I accept this is complex but the impact this is having on individuals in relation to the panic they see coming down the road is very real. Certainly, I see people in my office daily who are worried, cannot find anywhere, and the impact it is having. They do not see any hope in this or any plan out of it so we need to know if the Tánaiste will not extend that ban what will he put in place in the immediate term in relation to where people will live and what supports will be there for them.

A key consideration has to be the likely impact of any extension on supply. Recent data show that around 21,000 home sales last year involved landlords selling their properties while just 7,500 homes were bought by landlords. That means a net loss of 13,500 homes to the rental stock. We have to ask the question why the smaller landlords are leaving the market in droves. We have a whole range of rent protection zones. They came in I think in 2016 initially-----

Cashing in on high prices.

-----and were then extended in 2019 and 2020. The issue of trust is vital so we must be very clear in terms of what we are doing in this decision and I am sharing these issues with the Oireachtas now because it has to go beyond the catch cry of "you are the uncaring Government that wants to do x, y and z and we are the people who are for apple pie" etc. There is a real issue here. We could make things much worse is the point I am trying to make. We want to build up supply and we are doing it. We are up to 30,000 because of last year but there is a real issue and there are other consequences as well. We have up to a couple of hundred people coming back into the country who need to go back to their own homes who are working on behalf of the State. There are a lot of issues here that we have to work out and will discuss with the Deputies