Táim ag filleadh arís ar chúrsaí tithíochta - tá sé níos cirte easpa tithíochta a rá - agus go háirid an cinneadh atá déanta ag an Rialtas, agus a thiocfaidh i bhfeidhm arú amárach ar Lá na nAmadán, nach mbeidh cosaint ar bith ag tionóntaí ó thaobh díshealbhaithe de.

I return to housing. I hope the Tánaiste will deal with the issues I raise in a calm, dignified manner and without trading insults. From Saturday, April Fool’s Day, there will be no protection for tenants, who can be evicted on a no-fault basis. The Tánaiste did not come into the Dáil and tell us why that is being done or what analysis had been done. He did not come in proactively and ask for our co-operation, for reasons set out. His Government reacted and made it up as it went along.

I say that consciously because today I am looking at the 29th Simon report. I have used it often in here. It came out today. It is the 29th snapshot over three days in March. It tells us there are no properties available under the housing assistance payment, HAP, in 16 or 17 areas it looked at, in particular Galway city and its suburbs. HAP payments is the Government’s big step but there are no properties available. I ask the Tánaiste to read the report because it puts it in context and tells us of the significant increases in the average rent, which have been quoted here ad nauseam:

Increases in rents have been twinned by an ongoing contraction of supply ... Ireland [and this is important] has witnessed record high numbers in homelessness for seven consecutive months ... While the effect of the current moratorium [which will end on April Fool's Day] is still to be fully understood, it is clear that it has prevented homelessness.

This is a cruel, heartless policy from a Government that put political expedience at the top. Rather than doing this next year or in a different way, it was done with an eye to the local and European elections, without a doubt. I and colleagues have asked repeatedly what is in place. The Taoiseach casually said to let them go to Threshold or other organisations. This morning on the radio the CEO of one of those organisations told us that since Covid it is overwhelmed and only one in three people ringing in gets answered. Has it got extra resources? It has not. It is a small NGO that the Taoiseach told people who were going to be evicted to go to. That was the answer from him. I ask the Tánaiste, as Simon and as everybody on this side of the House has asked, to see sense. As Simon said this morning, it is never too late to undo a bad decision and this particular one is bad, cruel and unacceptable.

Hear, hear.

The Government has provided a rationale for the decision from the outset. I gave it earlier this morning. It is that an indefinite eviction ban would make the situation far worse and create a greater exodus of properties from the rental market, whereas we need more properties coming into the market. We need to create a framework whereby more people come into the market who are willing to let out their properties and we need to stop houses from exiting the market. That is the economic rationale. The Deputy may have a different view but I have not heard anybody suggesting an indefinite ban on evictions would help the housing situation or the homelessness situation in the medium term. I have not heard anybody articulate that an indefinite ban is the way to go.

The other key factor, which Members in the House will not want to accept, is the extraordinary increase in population in the past decade or so. That has been a significant factor. Notwithstanding that we built 35,000 houses last year, a 45% increase on the previous year, on which Covid had an impact, the reality is we now have more than 5 million people. Some 40,000 additional people came in via work permits last year, and that is not counting the numbers who come to work in Ireland from the European Union. We have had an exceptional situation in terms of accommodation more generally because of the war in Ukraine and because of a fivefold increase in asylum seeking in the country. If looked at objectively, it is clear, notwithstanding significant house construction – and we need to do more – why the pressures are as they are.

In the context of the lifting of the eviction ban, specific measures have been provided for and additional resources made available. Where people face eviction from a house, for example, we are saying the council should buy the house and prevent homelessness. We are expanding the cost-rental scheme to give people options not to have to leave their homes and we are introducing 1,000 targeted leasing units.

We can go beyond the 1,500 tenant in situ purchases in 2023. We have overhauled the capital advance leasing facility to boost supply and we will build more social houses again this year. Without question we have made a significant change in the number of social houses that have been built over the past two and a half years. This cannot be questioned. We need to do more on the social housing front and on affordable housing and the private housing market.

Is é an rud is tábhachtaí ar fad ná go bhfuil sé mar aidhm ag an Rialtas níos mó tithíochta a chruthú agus gach aon chabhair is féidir linn a thabhairt do dhaoine atá gan teach. Bhí sé seo soiléir anuraidh, mar shampla, nuair a tháinig suas le 1,400 duine amach as homelessness. Approximately 1,491 people exited homelessness in the fourth quarter of last year. This means we are preventing a lot of homelessness and enabling people to come out of homelessness. For many of the bodies that Deputy Connolly referenced, the Housing First policy with our agencies has been a significant and effective intervention by the Government.

Nobody has asked for an indefinite ban. That is spin. I wish you would stop the spin. This is far too serious.

Hear, hear.

I wish the Tánaiste would explain to the people where they will go tomorrow. With regard to housing, this did not happen overnight. It is the direct result of Government policies for a very long time.

Hear, hear.

The announcement by the Land Development Agency yesterday is ostensibly a positive one until we look at the details. A similar announcement was made back in April 2017. That was six years ago. It was made by the then Minister, Deputy Coveney, on what public land was available and how many houses could be built on it. Each Government proceeded to rely on the market, which has made matters much worse. For social housing this is because of the housing assistance payment. I spent 17 years of my life as a member of a council. I watched the housing assistance payment being introduced by the Labour Party and Fine Gael. I watched it become the turning point in changing our housing policy. People were taken off the waiting lists. My time is up and there is so much to speak about in this but I will finish by saying I am sick and tired of the traded insults across the Dáil. I am sick and tired of the spin. It is time the Government listened to us. We are here and we represent people. We have very good ideas on how to sort out the housing problem. They are not based on the market although the market does have an important role.

I do not trade insults with anybody. I have not traded insults with Deputy Connolly in particular. I have responded to her courteously and with respect. I have to put this on the record. Very often comments are made as if we trade all of the insults. We do not. I accept what Deputy Connolly has just said. She has made the very interesting point that no one in the House has called for an indefinite ban on evictions. That was the rationale for lifting the eviction ban in the first instance. Now the issue is timing or the duration of an eviction ban. That seems now to be where we are.

What do you do after it is lifted?

Other parties originally said we should do it until Christmas week. Then they said until the end of January, and now there is a new iteration. In addition, I made the point earlier that I believe in building social housing. I am back in government two and a half years and 20,000 social homes have been added to the social housing stock since the Government was formed. I do not believe in an overreliance on the housing assistance payment. We need to build. The approved housing bodies have done a significantly good job in completing projects. In respect of homelessness and the Housing First strategy, many homeless organisations, such as Simon and the Peter McVerry Trust, came to us, some years back admittedly, and said we needed to change. The numbers in Housing First have expanded very considerably with very good results with regard to retention and people staying on. What is key now is that the measures provided for are effective in preventing homelessness in the very difficult situation as the eviction ban is lifted. I accept this point and that is what we are working on and focused on.