Tá sé soiléir anois nach dtuigeann an Rialtas seo cé chomh briste is atá ár gcóras tithíochta. Dá mbeadh a fhios aige ní bheadh sé ag caitheamh vóta arís mar a rinne sé aréir, ag déanamh níos mó saoránach a fhágáil gan dídean sna laethanta, sna seachtainí agus sna míonna atá amach romhainn. Sin na fíricí. The reality of our broken housing system does not seem to have dawned on the Tánaiste or any of his Government colleagues because if it had, they would not have voted last night again to make more people homeless in the coming days, weeks and months.

The Tánaiste should listen back to Tom who spoke on "Morning Ireland" this morning. He works and is living in Simon Communities accommodation with 17 other people all of whom are working and are homeless. Prior to finding accommodation with Simon Communities, Tom slept in his car for four months. He said, "I was waking up every morning with wet blankets and clothes that were wet so when I got into work, I took my clothes off and put them on the radiator to dry them." Tom is a working man and a homeless man. Now he says he will die a homeless man. That is the harrowing heartbreaking prospect and into which the Government is choosing to evict working families, single people, children and older people in just 48 hours' time.

The clock is ticking for thousands now facing eviction. It is ticking for the family of two adults and three children in Louth. They face the possibility of losing their home in a couple of weeks. One of their children has autism and another suffers from anxiety and depression. I invite the Tánaiste to talk directly to that family. Where are they meant to go? The clock is ticking for a family in the Tánaiste's city of Cork. Two parents with five children have been renting their home for five years and now they have to get out. They are pleading with the Government to extend the eviction ban to give them more time. The Tánaiste should speak directly to that family on the Leeside. Where does he suggest they go when the Government lifts the ban in 48 hours?

The clock is also ticking for another family here in Dublin, a mother with an autistic son and a six-month-old baby. As parents we all want to safeguard our children. That baby is aged six months but they have to be out in May. She has applied for other apartments but nobody gets back to her. She says she feels sick. I ask the Tánaiste to tell that mother directly where she is to go when the Government lifts her safety net from her and when it ends the ban in 48 hours. That is the level of hopelessness we are hearing from people right across the State. There is despair out there because of the Government's utter failure to address the housing crisis.

The Taoiseach comes to the Dáil and goes on about abundancies of tenancies. Is he serious? Are renters just imagining the queues that stretch right around the corner with those queuing up desperate to find a home hoping that they will be the lucky one out of the hundreds of people queuing? Are they just imagining the empty inboxes when they send out application after application to see nothing coming back and the emails going unanswered? People are at their wits' end. They are running out of options to put a roof over their heads. Families the length and breadth of this State are running out of road.

With eyes wide open every single Member on the other side of this room decided to inflict misery and pain on those individuals. We need to call this decision what it is. It is a Government choosing to push thousands of working families towards homelessness. When will anyone on the Government benches face up to that reality because that is the reality? When will they face up to the fact that they are choosing to make working families, single people and pensioners in their constituencies homeless? For the love of God, we are supposed to be in here to do right, to do good for people not to impose harm, pain, anxiety and homelessness on them, but the Government has done exactly the opposite and is throwing those people to the wolves.

I will ask the Tánaiste the simple question we have asked for weeks. When will he give us an answer? When will he give those families an answer? Where are they to go when the Government removes the safety net from them in 48 hours' time by getting rid of the eviction ban?

The fundamental point that an indefinite eviction ban would make the situation worse and is not a viable policy is one shared by the Deputy and his party. Sinn Féin does not propose an indefinite eviction ban. It proposes exactly the same as the Government decided this week, only it delays it for a number of months. It has changed the delay time. It was 31 December, then it was 31 January and now it has a new iteration of essentially the same point. What Sinn Féin Members have attacked with great fury in recent weeks is exactly what they propose to do. In addition to that, they have also acknowledged that there cannot be a transformation in the overall housing situation within six months or within the lifetime of any eviction ban. A very dishonest proposition is being put by Deputy Doherty and his party in respect of this entire issue because what they are really about is the exploitation of the issue.

Housing is a very serious issue. Since the establishment of this Government over two and a half years ago, I have consistently said that was the number one priority. Significant progress has been made which Sinn Féin simply does not acknowledge. Many of its policies would have made the situation far worse, as is evidenced by the party's extraordinary decision to oppose about 11,500 proposed houses.

The Tánaiste has already been fact-checked on that.

Please.

We can leave that, but it is a fact.

No, it is not. The Tánaiste has been fact-checked on it.

As Deputy Ó Broin said on radio last week, Sinn Féin wants public housing on public lands only and therefore it was against affordable housing on public lands, cost rental and so on.

That is absolutely not true.

That is exactly the position.

What I said was 100% of affordable housing on public land.

If I could, I want to move on, because it is a standard practice now in the House-----

He should not mislead the Dáil.

Please.

He is misleading the Dáil again.

There is a standard practice in the House, which I have witnessed over the last three or four days when Government Members get up to speak, having allowed the Opposition Members to speak without any interruption-----

When the Tánaiste misleads the House and misrepresents our position-----

-----that Government spokespeople are heckled all the time.

If this is going to continue-----

I will not have the House misled about what I said on radio.

Here we go again.

Deputy Ó Broin need not worry about the House being misled.

I am very worried about what the Tánaiste is saying.

This is Leaders' Questions and Deputy Ó Broin is not the leader. He should hold his whisht and let people speak. A little bit of courtesy is all we are asking for. The Tánaiste to continue.

As I said, considerable progress has been made on housing with 30,000 new homes completed last year, a 45% increase on 2021. We saw the highest number of first-time buyer purchases in the month of January since the CSO data series began in 2010. Nearly 20,000 social homes have been added to the social housing stock since this Government came in. That was up to quarter 3 of 2022 and was the highest in many a year. The 2022 social housing figures will reflect that growth, as will 2023 also.

Regarding measures to deal with the people who are facing potential eviction notices, notices to quit and so on, the in situ scheme has been expanded. The Minister has established a specific unit to engage with all local authorities so that in the case the Deputy has identified, the council buys that property and adds it to the social housing stock of the council, keeping the tenant in situ. In addition, resources have been provided for 1,000 units to be leased. Money has been allocated to prevent eviction. Nobody in this House is voting for people to be on the streets.

You are.

Please.

Nobody in this House is voting for homelessness. We want to develop policies that prevent homelessness. It is our view and the advice we have received that an indefinite long-term ban on evictions would make the situation far worse and would create a greater degree of homelessness over the medium to long term. Why? It is because it would take people out of the rental market entirely.

People will leave the rental market in greater numbers if Sinn Féin's policies are adopted.

The Tánaiste's time is up.

Sinn Féin has had its impact too in terms of the consistent demonisation of that sector for a long time.

That is rubbish.

Let me be clear, the Tánaiste has voted to make people homeless.

Hear, hear.

Every single Deputy on the Government side has voted to make people homeless. They have done that without knowing where that family in their own county is going to go - two parents working with children. They have no idea where they are going to go. They do not know if they are going to be sent to a Garda station, if they are going to be living in the car or in emergency accommodation. They have no idea, but they voted no matter what to make them homeless.

Gillian is from Dublin. She says herself and her kids are going to be homeless in April. She says they have no family to rely on and they cannot get any help or accommodation or anywhere safe to stay.

Thomas says his landlord is selling up and gave his wife and him notice at the start of the year. He says it is impossible to find anywhere. They are looking at emigrating as a result. They are devastated.

Karen is being evicted after eight years with two young kids. Both of them work full time but rents are so high and there are so few properties that they can only rely on luck, worry and anxiety, which is making them ill. All they feel is shame and despair. Shame on the Government, because it is making this decision, not anybody else.

The time is up.

It is making the decision in 48 hours to throw countless families to the wolves.

The time is up.

There is still time to do the right thing. The Government should extend the eviction ban. Be it on their heads. These families are being abandoned by the Government.

The time is up.

It should never happen in a modern democracy. It is shameful what the Government has done.

Hear, hear.

Sinn Féin proposed to do the very same thing in Christmas week.

Not a chance.

Yes, Sinn Féin did.

The Tánaiste should stop misleading the House.

It did the very same thing in Christmas week.

He is a disgrace. He stands here and misleads the Dáil every single time.

I am sorry-----

He is a disgrace.

This is not the army council. We are in Parliament. Sinn Féin should have a little bit of respect for the Parliament.

The Tánaiste is a disgrace.

The Minister, Deputy Donnelly, should sit down.

The Tánaiste is misleading us over and over again.

The Minister for Health should try to sort out the health service.

The Minister, Deputy Donnelly, has enough to be doing.

This is not on.

The accidental landlord. Is the landlord getting excited now?

I am not going to see the procedures of the House subverted. People are entitled to speak. Deputy Doherty is entitled to make his point, and he has made it very strongly. The Tánaiste is entitled to respond without interruption.

I ask him not to mislead the Dáil-----

Without interruption.

-----over and over again.

We do not need comment after comment.

Through the Chair, I think Sinn Féin's tolerance of free debate has always been one that has been questioned over the years.

Our intolerance to dishonesty.

With respect, on a point of order, I was the person who had to bring that man to the High Court because he was subverting democracy.

Deputy Doherty should resume his seat.

He was found guilty because he tried to do this.

Deputy Doherty should resume his seat.

That is the reality. The Tánaiste and the Government were found guilty.

Sinn Féin’s army of trolls may browbeat-----

Perhaps the Tánaiste could answer the question.

I am sorry, but the Tánaiste will not answer anything. I am on my feet. If Members persist with this, then I will suspend the House. I am not going to tolerate it. The people out there who are watching this Parliament conduct its business are disgusted with the sort of behaviour that goes on here.

They have switched off.

People need to be-----

A couple of people have died also.

People need to be able to speak without interruption. I will not allow Deputy Doherty to be interrupted but I will not allow him to interrupt anybody else either.

With all due respect, comments have been thrown-----

I think I have enough said, a Cheann Comhairle.

-----from over on that side of the House also.

I have enough said. There is no point.

Maybe you should look over there when you are speaking too, a Cheann Comhairle.

The Tánaiste has nothing to say.

He will not answer the question.

Could I just make the point that I appreciate the challenge you have, a Cheann Comhairle?

The Tánaiste has nothing to say.

I have endeavoured to reply. I have been shouted down repeatedly. That is a tactic. I will allow other Members to come in now.

Where are they going to go?

The Government should be building houses.

The Tánaiste has no answers.

I have. The Deputies do not want to listen.

Where are they going to go?

The Tánaiste has no answers.

The Tánaiste has no answers.

I have.

Could we please-----

People have 48 hours.

The Deputies do not want to listen. It is a deliberate tactic.

Could we please have silence?

The Tánaiste misleading the House is a deliberate tactic. It is dishonest politics at their worst.

It is absolutely intolerable. I am talking about parliamentary practice.

Dishonesty from the Tánaiste is intolerable.

I am talking about parliamentary practice.

I am talking about honesty, a Cheann Comhairle.

I am talking about parliamentary practice. That is my job. It is to ensure that proper practice is adhered to and not subverted by anybody. Deputy Holly Cairns has the floor.