In four weeks' time the emergency ban on evictions will end. From April, hundreds of people will face the prospect of losing their homes. Single people, couples, parents with children and pensioners will become homeless. In many local authorities emergency accommodation is already full to capacity. The system is at breaking point. In Dublin alone, 60 single people and 100 families from the county are in emergency accommodation in Meath and Kildare.

We are facing not only an increase in people in emergency accommodation from April but also a rise in rough sleeping and, under Tusla's rules, the prospect of families with children being referred to Garda stations for a safe place to sleep. Let that sink in for a moment. In a wealthy country with tens of thousands of vacant homes and hundreds of millions in unspent Government capital funding for housing, children will be forced to sleep in Garda stations.

Why is this happening? Who is responsible? The short answer is the Taoiseach. Last night he, the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, and the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, took a decision to allow homelessness to increase. They took a conscious decision that will force more single people, couples, parents with children and even pensioners into homelessness and, in some cases, into tents and Garda stations. Let us be clear that no other new or substantive decision was made last night. There were no additional measures to prevent people from becoming homeless in April. There were no emergency measures to increase the supply of much-needed social and affordable homes in the short term. There was just a cold, blunt decision to end the ban on evictions in four weeks' time. What a heartless, cruel and shameful decision.

When the emergency ban on evictions was introduced last October, we told the Government it was not enough. We urged the Government to use the breathing space the ban provided to take emergency action, namely, to expand the tenant in situ scheme, to expand that scheme to affordable cost rental, to use emergency planning and procurement powers to target vacant and derelict properties, and to utilise new building technologies. This would all have been for the purposes of increasing and accelerating the delivery of social and affordable homes. However, the Taoiseach and his colleagues in government chose to ignore us. They have done nothing extra and now, because of their inaction and their decision last night, homelessness will increase.

Once again, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have abandoned renters. The Government parties are throwing them to the mercy of a totally dysfunctional market, a dysfunction created by 11 years of Fine Gael in government, propped up, of course, by Fianna Fáil for the past six years, and now joined by the Green Party, whose leader has been accused today by one of his own Dáil colleagues of abandoning his party's values and policies. Together, the parties in government have allowed rents to rise and keep rising. They have failed to deliver an appropriate volume of social or affordable homes to rent or buy. Year after year, they have missed their own social housing targets, targets that were not sufficient in the first place. As a result, people are in huge housing stress. A generation is locked out of homeownership, crippled by sky-high rents, trampled in cramped flat shares, stuck in the family's box bedroom, struggling through long, exhausting commutes and languishing on social housing waiting lists. Now we have the spectre of people being forced to emigrate because they cannot access an affordable home.

My question is simple. What is the Government going to do to prevent ever more people becoming homeless when it ends the eviction ban in April and what is it going to do to increase the supply of social and affordable housing to invert the ever-deepening housing emergency?

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as a chuid ceiste. Rinne an Rialtas socrú deacair inniu. Tá buntáistí agus míbhuntáistí ag baint leis ach creidim gurb é an cinneadh ceart ar son leas an phobail. The Government today decided that the temporary eviction moratorium would end on a phased basis, as planned and previously announced, from the end of March. It was a finely balanced decision. There are pros and cons, but we made the decision which we believe is in the overall public interest. Why? It is for three reasons. First, the moratorium was not effective in reducing homelessness. The number of homeless people being provided with emergency accommodation by the State increased every month for which the moratorium was in place. Second, it was beginning to create a new form of homelessness, with people being unable to move back into a property they owned or to move a son or daughter into an apartment they had bought for the purpose. Some 20,000 to 30,000 Irish citizens return home every year. Most do not own their own house or apartment, but many do, and extending this moratorium for another six months or a year would not have been right or fair to those people. Third, we also did not extend it, and this is a crucial point, because we believe that leaving it in place would have reduced the availability of places to rent and driven up rents further. Why? It would have discouraged new landlords, who we need, from coming into the market. We lost 40,000 in the past five years, and it may have caused, once extended, more landlords to leave. It would, therefore, have been bad for renters, in our assessment, to extend this eviction ban, especially in the cases of those moving or seeking to rent for the first time.

Let me explain this point in a bit more detail. We know from reports from Daft.ie and the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, for example, that for the vast majority of renters, that is, people who have tenancies and are sitting tenants, rents increased by about 3.5% last year. This was because of the rent pressure zones, RPZs, and other measures. When it comes to new tenancies, however, and new rental properties becoming available for the first time, rents are skyrocketing and this is because there are not enough properties available. Too few new properties are coming on the market to meet demand and we believe that extending the eviction ban and this moratorium would have meant even fewer properties coming on the market. Why? People who have a property to rent would be afraid they would never be able to get hold of or control of it again. We believe, therefore, on balance, that it is in the public interest to do this for three reasons. First, this measure was not bringing down homelessness. Second, it was creating a whole new form of homelessness, with people not able to move back into their own homes and properties they owned. Third, it would also make fewer properties available in future, thus making rental property less available and pushing up rents further. This might not be correct and it might not even be the right decision, but it is one we believe is correct based on all the factors in front of us. It is the decision we believe is in the public interest.

Homelessness and the number of people in emergency accommodation provided by the State has been rising now every month for quite some time. We accept that it may well continue to rise in the months ahead. We think, however, that the decision we made today increases the chances that we can get homelessness down in the medium to long term, whereas extending it would do the reverse. It might have given us some respite for a short period ahead, but it would have made things much worse in the medium to long term.

To correct the Deputy on one crucial point, we made several important decisions today to alleviate the situation. First, we decided that local authorities would be funded to purchase up to 1,500 homes from landlords who are selling up so those people can avoid homelessness. There are roughly 1,600 homeless families in the State. The fact we have decided to buy 1,500 homes from landlords selling up so that people do not become homeless is a significant decision. We also decided that private tenants would be given the first right of refusal if their landlord is selling up, as is the case in France, and we will help them to buy when they cannot afford to do so. We also decided to lease an additional 1,000 social housing units, particularly targeted at those who are homeless.

There is no pro to being in emergency accommodation, sleeping in a tent or having to bring your children to a Garda station. The Taoiseach said the ban on evictions was not working. In fact, it was his Government that was not working. The reason the previous ban on evictions was so effective was because exits from homelessness rose. In the past year and half, under the watch of the Taoiseach and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, exits from homelessness have collapsed. The Taoiseach also said that the ban was creating a new form of homelessness. I tabled an amendment to the Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Bill 2022 last October which would have addressed this point, but this Government did not support it. Equally, the Taoiseach said that if the ban on evictions were to be continued, this would reduce the availability of rental stock. The very opposite would be the case. Once the ban on evictions is ended, landlords will continue to leave the market.

They have been doing it for six or seven years and they will continue in the time ahead.

With respect to the Government's target for the tenant in situ scheme, we know what the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, does with his targets; he makes them and he breaks them over and over again. In my local authority, more than 100 homes have been offered to South Dublin County Council for the tenant in situ scheme in the past year. How many have been bought? Three. The Taoiseach should please not come here and tell us he agreed anything new last night. The Government made one decision: to end the ban and increase homelessness.

I thank Deputy Ó Broin. The time is up.

What additional emergency measures will the Government put in place for April to counteract the negative consequences of its own decision?

There were about 2,700 exits from homelessness last year and 3,000 preventions. Perhaps the reason there were more exits from homelessness during the pandemic is that, because of the restrictions on domestic and international travel, there was simply more accommodation available, with people not coming into the country and tourists not taking up the accommodation. There were many other factors at play during the pandemic that helped to reduce homelessness, and that is now very evident. That the moratorium was not effective in bringing down the number of people homeless in the past six months proves that.

I outlined earlier the decisions we have taken. We are authorising local authorities to purchase 1,500 homes this year and we will fund them to do it. If a landlord is selling up who has a social housing tenant on the housing assistance payment, HAP, or the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, local authorities will be encouraged and enabled to purchase the property so the person or family does not become homeless in the first place. We are going to give private renters the right of first refusal and help them to buy. It will not work for everyone but it will work for some. We have also decided to lease an additional 1,000 social homes to accommodate people who are becoming homeless. We have also signalled very clearly that there will be tax measures in the forthcoming budget to encourage landlords to stay in the market and to encourage more to come in. There will always be landlords leaving, but there are zero entering now and that is a very big problem and something we need to address.

It is unbearable sitting here listening to the Taoiseach trying to defend the indefensible: the Government's decision to lift the ban on evictions in the middle of a housing emergency. The Government has now potentially condemned thousands of individuals and families to homelessness. There is nowhere for them to go when they leave their homes. There is no affordable private rental accommodation anywhere in the country. Emergency accommodation is full. Hotels are full. Bed and breakfast accommodation is full. There is no uncertainty about the consequences of lifting this ban: it will open the floodgates to a tsunami of homelessness. The impact of this on individuals and families will be catastrophic, in particular for children.

The Taoiseach said that he wants to make Ireland the best country in the world to be a child. He made that commitment when he became Taoiseach barely two months ago. What does he say today to those children who will become homeless because of the Government's decision? We know children who experience homelessness are more likely to be bullied and are twice as likely to be hospitalised as their peers who have a home. We all know there is lots of research that confirms the serious harm that is being done to the health and well-being of children as a direct result of homelessness. This is serious harm that is being inflicted on them by the State because of the Government's failure to address the housing disaster. I want everybody in this Chamber, in particular on the Government benches, to be very clear-eyed today about the implications of the decision on the health and well-being of children. It will cause huge damage, and that damage is avoidable. It does not have to ruin these children's lives.

Once these children enter homelessness, it becomes increasingly difficult to get out. The Government was warned as recently as January by Dublin City Council that the number of homeless families in Dublin finding homes in the private rental sector has fallen to its lowest level in five years. What does this mean? It means there are now nearly 500 families who have been trapped in emergency accommodation for more than a year. It means there are more than 200 families that have endured more than two years in emergency accommodation. Housing is a human right because it means more than a just a roof over our heads. Our homes provide us and our families with comfort, dignity, privacy and security. This is why one of the most basic requirements in a functioning society is the provision of a secure and affordable home.

It is supposedly the biggest priority of the Government, yet it is its biggest failure. I have one question for the Taoiseach. Will he reverse this appalling decision?

As I explained earlier, we made this decision because we believe it is the right one in the public interest, which is the only reason we would make a decision of this nature. We weighed up the pros and cons, listened to the arguments and decided, on balance, this was the right decision for the three reasons I outlined. It has not been effective in reducing the number of people in emergency accommodation, which has increased every month the eviction ban has been in place. Second, it was beginning to create new forms of homelessness, such as people not being able to move back into their own homes after coming home from abroad and people not being able to put their own children - Deputy Cairns mentioned children - into an apartment they bought for that purpose, for example, when they become old enough to go to college. Crucially, we formed the view and opinion that by extending this, the chances of getting new supply into the market and new landlords to rent out properties and apartments would have been very low. There will always be a turnover of people entering and leaving the rental market. If we do not have new landlords coming in, we will never be able to get rents down and we will never have availability. It is our view and assessment that, if we are going to keep landlords in the market and, more importantly, get new landlords to come into the market, the only way to improve availability and get rents down is to get new landlords into the market, and by extending this moratorium, we would make the situation worse, with less availability, longer queues for people trying to get an apartment and higher rents. We see the differential now between existing tenancies, where rents are going up by about 3.5% a year, and new tenancies, where they are going up by 14% or 15% a year because there is a lack of new supply. Anything we do to discourage new supply is going to make things worse for renters. That is the basis behind our decision.

Deputy Cairns spoke passionately about how this impacts on children. I believe she is sincere in that, but if so, why is it the case that her party has consistently voted against Government solutions when it comes to affordable housing? The Social Democrats voted against the Affordable Housing Act 2021, which brought in the first home scheme for loads of young people who are now buying for the first time and brought in 50,000 new social houses in the next quarter, and that party voted against the Land Development Agency, LDA, which is doing exactly what Deputy Cairns advocates we should do, which is building affordable housing on State lands. Why would the Social Democrats vote against those measures? Why would its members complain about a problem and then consistently oppose the solutions?

It is quite telling that the Taoiseach is reduced to trying to blame the Opposition consistently for a housing disaster that has exploded during his 13 years in office. Is that really the best he can do? I know I am new to this but I think being a leader is about taking responsibility for the things that have happened on your watch. The Taoiseach said the Government had weighed up the pros and cons and, on balance, had decided to take this decision. We have heard a lot about the knowns and the unknowns in recent weeks. This was largely theorising from the Taoiseach and Ministers about what might happen if the eviction ban were extended, the potential consequences of the continuation of it and what they might be. There is no need to speculate in any way whatsoever about what definitely will happen if the eviction ban is removed, which is forcing thousands of people into homelessness. The unintended potential consequences when he was weighing up the pros and cons are very confusing for people because the definite, intended consequences are clear for everybody to see. I ask the Taoiseach again: will he please reverse this ridiculous decision?

I thank the Deputy. The decision we made today was not just a decision to allow the moratorium to lapse. We also made a decision to buy 1,500 homes where the landlord is selling up and the tenant is a social housing tenant. That will prevent hundreds, if not thousands, of families from going into homelessness. We decided to increase the number of social homes we will provide this year to in or around 12,000. Last year, we built about 8,000 new social homes, probably the highest number since 1975. We are going to do more again this year. We have also taken other measures.

I asked a question.

I answered the Deputy's question in the first part. We have made this decision and we believe it is the right one in the public interest. We know it is controversial and is going to be difficult to defend, but it is nonetheless, in our honest view, the right decision and in the public interest. Deputy Cairns mentioned being a leader, and I congratulate her on her recent election. Being a leader means standing over your decisions. I will stand over this decision.

You cannot go around saying you want to help people to become homeowners when you opposed the help-to-buy scheme, which has helped 30,000 young people to become owners, and the Affordable Housing Act, by means of which the first home scheme was created. You have to stand over the decisions your party makes. Tens of thousands of young people have bought homes in the past two years. They would not have done so if we had had a Social Democrats housing Minister.