For weeks now this Government has been equivocating on whether or not to extend the eviction ban while people who are living on a knife edge are worrying about how they are going to pay the rent and their bills and if they will have a home in the coming months or not. Calls are coming from every sector that deals with housing on the dire need to extend the ban. Threshold has had hundreds of people contacting it with regard to eviction. Fr. Peter McVerry has said that we are facing an avalanche of evictions. The Taoiseach's own Minister was compelled to bring in the winter eviction ban because he was advised that up to 2,800 people could find themselves on the streets if the ban was not brought in during November. I cannot tell the Taoiseach of the concern and stress felt by all of the people who come into my constituency office, and I am sure into every constituency office, who are either facing eviction or are worried about facing eviction if this ban is lifted. People are barely keeping their heads above water, and many people cannot even do that. There is a real need for this eviction ban to be extended to keep hundreds of thousands of people in their homes.

I was listening to Nessan Vaughan of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul speak on "Morning Ireland" this morning about the sheer numbers of people coming to it as a result of the cost-of-living crisis. The problem is becoming more widespread. Groups of people who, a year ago, would never have dreamed of needing to go to a charity are now contacting the society, in desperate need of help. If the Government lifts this ban, many people who are already choosing between food and heat will be facing eviction as well.

I have before me an article published by the Nevin Economic Research Institute, NERI, which welcomes the one-off payments but states that the Government's recent cost-of-living package did far too little to combat the rising rates of poverty and deprivation among some of the most vulnerable groups of people. The deprivation rate stands at 44.3% for those with disabilities, 43.5% for lone parents, 48.6% for unemployed people and 35.6% for renters. Children have a one in five probability of living in deprivation. There are 3,431 children and 1,609 families in homelessness. The Children's Rights Alliance stated yesterday that child homelessness went up by 34% last year and family homelessness by 44%.

Things are getting worse for many people. Has the Government used the opportunity afforded by the winter eviction ban to put in any real emergency measures to increase the supply of housing to help those without a home or facing eviction? Before the winter eviction ban was introduced, there was no emergency accommodation available from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive. We are in cost-of-living, homelessness and housing crises. Is the Government going to take away one of the last barriers to thousands of people being evicted from their homes and potentially put us into a severe eviction crisis? What measures has it put in place to provide emergency services for those with termination notices dating from before November last year and for those who received notices since then? How many extra emergency places have been sourced and from where? In the context of the many people renting who are not on a housing list, the housing assistance payment, HAP, or the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, will the Taoiseach instruct landlords that, as soon as an eviction notice issues, they must contact the local authority to give it an opportunity to buy the property? Will he allow that to happen?

I thank the Deputy. I do not have the exact numbers she asked for but I will ask the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide them for her if they are available.

The relevant figure is 10,798.

As regards the supply of housing, we are doing absolutely everything we can to increase the supply of housing for people who need it. We are seeing some good results - not enough, but some good results. There were 30,000 new homes built last year, more than in any other year in more than a decade. That does not include student accommodation or vacant or derelict homes being brought back into use. Approximately 8,000 additional social housing units were delivered last year, more than any other year since 1975. No Government in my lifetime has been more committed to social housing than this one. Housing of new forms, such as cost rental, is now becoming a reality for the first time. We have also sourced additional emergency accommodation not just for the 5,000 or 6,000 Irish citizens who need it but also for people who have come from abroad, such as those seeking international protection, homeless people from abroad and people from Ukraine. A huge amount of effort has been put in by the Departments with responsibility for housing and integration to find as much accommodation as possible. That includes refurbishments and modular housing. Within weeks, we will see the first modular homes being occupied. That is a positive too.

In terms of extending the eviction ban, we have not made a decision on that yet as a Government but we will do so shortly. We had hoped the eviction ban would result in a fall in the number of people in emergency accommodation, as was the case during the pandemic, but it did not. The number has continued to rise. That is because there are other factors at play, including things like family breakdown and the fact that the travel-related restrictions that were in place during the pandemic are now gone. It did not have the effect we had hoped it would have. It can and will be argued that if we had not done it, the situation would be even worse. That may well be the case but it is not certain.

It is the case.

We need to have regard for other factors. First, there is the exit of landlords from the market, which is a big problem. There are fewer rental properties available now than there were a few years ago. We need more of them, not fewer. People need to rent for different reasons at different points in their lives and, therefore, we need more landlords. The exit of landlords, particularly small landlords, from the market is a real problem. We have to make sure we do not exacerbate that. We also need to have regard to the fact that there are people who live abroad and are coming home. Every year, 30,000 Irish citizens return home. They do not all own a house or apartment but many of them do and they should be allowed to move back into the homes they own.

More than 3,000 people could be facing termination notices at the end of March. What has the Government put in place to provide emergency services for many of those people if, for example, the local authority will not buy the house due to structural issues? I was contacted by a family facing eviction. The council stated that it cannot buy the house in question. The family has a severely affected autistic child who could not face being moved around the homelessness system in any way. What measures has the Government put in place? Has it sourced at least 1,500 emergency places? If so, from where? What measures has it put in place to set up a scheme whereby landlords must tell the local authority they are issuing a termination notice and offer it an opportunity to buy the house? What happens to people who are not on HAP, RAS or a housing list? What help can they be given? Will they just be left out on the street? Does the Taoiseach have a plan for where those in apartments will go if they face eviction in the coming two or three months? If the Government is not going to extend the eviction ban, the Taoiseach must tell the House what services it will provide for these people so that they know they have something to fall back on.

We have sourced more emergency accommodation. I do not have the exact figures or locations but I will ask the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide that information for the Deputy. It is important to state that although the number of people in State-provided emergency accommodation is at an all-time high, the number of people we are taking out of homelessness into secure housing is also at an all-time high. The difficulty we have, and it is a big difficulty, is that people are becoming homeless faster than we can find homes for them. We are providing homes for them, however. There is a churn and it is important that we be aware of that. We are very much saying to local authorities that the money is there for them to buy homes if a landlord is selling up. In the case of a social housing tenant or the tenant of an affordable housing body, the option is there for the local authority to purchase that property and keep it in the rental market.

What about those who are not on a local authority housing list? I ask that the Minister come to the House next week to explain any decision in respect of the eviction ban.