Léiríonn an tseachtain seo go bhfuil polasaí tithíochta an Rialtais ag teipeadh. Mar gheall ar na polasaithe seo, tá na mílte daoine nach féidir teach a cheannach nó a fháil ar chíos réasúnta. Déanann cinneadh an Rialtais i leith deireadh a chur leis an gcosc ar díshealbhú rudaí níos measa agus caithfear an cosc sin a thabhairt ar ais láithreach.

We have seen the most serious housing crisis in the history of the State, but one would never think this is the case, going from the performance of the Government. Let us look at the new low points they have achieved in the last few days alone. They have failed to spend €1 billion in funding for housing, which means that thousands of desperately needed homes were not built. They have missed their affordable housing targets by a country mile - by nearly 60%. Yesterday, we heard from the housing charity, Threshold, that it has been contacted by a record number of people in housing distress. This is just one week on the watch of the Tánaiste's Government. Is it any wonder that so many working people and families cannot put an affordable roof over their heads?

What do we get from the Government? Action to tackle extortionate rents? No. Measures to relieve soaring mortgage interest rates? No. Real action to respond to record homelessness? Not a chance from this Government. What we get is a Government that is digging in on its decision to lift the eviction ban. This cruel decision will see many people lose their homes in the coming weeks and months. The Government has done this while having no plan in place to protect renters. Nearly three weeks on, the Tánaiste still cannot answer the simple question, "Where are people meant to go?".

The Government is circling the wagons, but ordinary people out there are suffering on the ground. A couple in their 50s with two kids are to be evicted from their home of 11 years in June. They have been desperately trying to find a new place, with no luck. Now, they face the prospect of homelessness. Their eldest son is due to sit the junior certificate soon. The mother is not sleeping with all of the stress and she has actually been hospitalised with chest pains. The stress is also affecting their children. That is what is really happening on the ground because of the Government's decision.

What about the families in the Tánaiste's own constituency in his own county of Cork? If he is not aware of what is happening, let me just inform him. A family of four have received their eviction notice. The council said "No" to buying the property. It now says that it is overcrowded, despite the fact it was making housing assistance payments for this family for the last four years. What about another individual in the Tánaiste's own county of Cork, a lady who was evicted on Friday? She was gone on Friday and she is now in emergency accommodation. She got a call from the council, after all her bags were packed and she had moved out, to say that it would buy the house, but it is too late. She was evicted. She is in emergency accommodation. The landlord had been in contact with the council as far back as August of last year about selling the house to the council. He has pulled out now because it has taken too long. She has been evicted and she is in emergency accommodation in the Tánaiste's own county of Cork. That is what happening on the ground because there is no plan in place to deal with individuals like this. Where are they meant to go? Is the Tánaiste satisfied that this lady is in emergency accommodation, or that the family of four are so stressed that they are being hospitalised because they do not know where they are to go in June?

In 2017, the Tánaiste described the housing and homelessness crisis as a national scandal. He was right then, but things have gotten even worse. The Government's lifting of the eviction ban without any plan to protect renters is a national scandal today. How else could we describe a Government decision that put so many working families at risk of eviction, with nowhere to go? I am asking the Tánaiste, for the sake of those families, for the sake of the people who are stressed to the hilt and for the sake of people who are in emergency accommodation today, to make sure nobody else ends up in that situation and to reinstate the eviction ban in order to buy the Government time to get to plans in place to make sure people have a place to go. Will the Tánaiste do that?

I dtús báire, ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Is soiléir nach bhfuil aon phlean cuimsitheach ag an Teachta féin ó thaobh na géarchéime tithíochta atá againn sa tír seo. Níl sé soiléir in aon chor. Má éisteann muid leis an méid atá ráite ag an Teachta agus a chomhghleacaithe - na polasaithe agus na tuairimí atá luaite acu - ní bheidh amhras orainn ach go mbeadh an scéal i bhfad níos measa dá gcuirfí roinnt de na polasaithe sin i bhfeidhm.

The Deputy's inability to acknowledge any progress in relation to housing policy undermines the credibility of his presentation. The bottom line over the last year is that 30,000 new homes were completed in 2022. That is a 45% increase on 2021 figures. Can the Deputy bring himself to say that is very significant progress? It is the highest annual total since the Central Statistics Office, CSO, data series began in 2011. In 2022, we saw the highest level of delivery of new-build social housing since 1975. Last year, more than 10,000 social homes were delivered, including new builds, acquisitions and leasing. Can the Deputy acknowledge that?

We are looking at a consistent trend of more than 10,000 social houses being delivered year on year in respect of the new situation regarding affordable housing, cost rental and first-time buyers. The Deputy's party seems to have a blind spot with first-time buyers. Sinn Féin is opposed to measures that help first-time buyers. These are young people who are trying to get on the housing ladder and buy their first home. Sinn Féin opposed the help-to-buy scheme, which has helped more than 38,000 first-time buyers. Sinn Féin is against it and wants to abolish it. Likewise, under the first home scheme, which has proven very attractive to young people given its equity dimension, last year there were up to 16,000 new first-time buyers. Real inroads have therefore been made in policy areas with regard to social housing, first-time buyers, the help-to-buy scheme, the first home scheme and the cost-rental initiative. There was no cost rental two years ago. Significant numbers of cost-rental properties have now been built and there is much more to come in the future.

In respect of measures for the homeless situation, we have provided measures through the tenant in situ scheme. I cannot deal with every individual case the Deputy may raise. It is easy for him to take one case at a time. However, the policy is there. Councils have been instructed to buy houses where a person is under threat of eviction. A specific unit has been established in the Department to ensure, co-ordinate and direct councils to follow through. There is evidence that substantial numbers of tenant in situ situations are being progressed by councils across the length and breadth of the country. Given that the population has increased very significantly in this country, there is no doubt that we need a higher level of house completion over the next number of years. Sinn Féin's policies on the rental side and in terms of their serial objections to a whole range of developments - approximately 11,000 houses have been objected to by Sinn Féin - would actually reduce the available housing stock both for homeless people and for those seeking to ensure we have a stronger number of houses for rental within the market. Sinn Féin's policies can be summed up as banning, freezing and all of that. It is totally demand-side in the area of rental and there are no real, concrete measures over and above what the Government is doing to boost supply. I do not see it from Sinn Féin.

Will the Tánaiste open his eyes? Will he listen to what is happening out there? Will he listen to his own constituents? Will he listen to what people are saying right across society? The housing crisis was not just a national scandal in 2017 when the Tánaiste called it out; it is a national scandal now.

Things have got worse. House prices have risen beyond all reach of people, rents have exploded and homelessness is at an all-time high. In the middle of that, the wisdom of the Tánaiste, his party and his Government is to end the eviction ban. The consequences of that, whether he wants to ignore them or not, are that people in his constituency, my constituency and every constituency across the State are stressed out, not knowing where they are going.

Things have definitely got worse since the eviction ban was lifted:

Our age group has been completely forgotten about. I never imagined I would be in this position at 50 years of age.

They are the words of a woman in Wicklow, a mother who is at her wits' end because her family is about to be evicted, a mother who cannot sleep because of the stress of it. That is what is happening under the Government's watch. What is its new hare-brained idea? It is to do what it has done in the past and what Fianna Fáil did when it wrecked the economy the last time it was in government, namely, give multimillion euro subsidies to developers instead of building the social, affordable and cost-rental houses that are needed and installing the eviction ban to give itself the breathing space to make sure people have somewhere to go. That is what it should do.

The Deputy wanted to lift the eviction ban on Christmas week. That was his proposal. There was nothing of substance in what he was saying. It is all empty sloganeering and sound bites designed to win votes. That is all he is interested in. He is not interested in solutions. He described the crisis. How in the name of God can his party object to 11,000 houses?

We did not.

How can it do that?

We did not.

How can it do it with a straight face?

The Government has been fact-checked on this so many times.

The reason it objects, on a serial basis, up and down the length and breadth of the country, is that it wants to win votes at local level.

There are mothers and children without anywhere to go.

That is what Sinn Féin is at. Whenever it is that a group will support something, Sinn Féin is there-----

It is a simple question. Where are people going to go?

-----but it is not going to do anything, it seems to me, concrete, of substance or constructive to solve the problem.

There are mothers and children with nowhere to go.

I have not heard a single idea-----

Where are the modular homes you promised?

-----from Deputy Doherty this afternoon regarding any additional resolution. All I have heard from him is to abolish the help-to-buy, to abolish the first home scheme, a scheme that is helping first-time buyers.

Bring back the eviction ban.

What does Deputy Doherty have against first-time buyers? His position on the rental market and the eviction ban-----

You have no defence whatsoever.

We have a defence-----

Mothers and children in the Tánaiste's own county are in emergency accommodation.

Deputies, please.

Sinn Féin would make it far worse. That is the point. It would create a further crisis.

Where will they go?

All your policies in respect of the demand side of the rental market would reduce rental supply and the availability of housing.

Where will they go?

The Tánaiste is floundering.

All this shouting and interrupting is not helping anyone.

It is simple. The Tánaiste should answer the question.

It is not helping anyone. Please.

Three weeks on and the Tánaiste cannot answer where the children in his own constituency whom he is evicting are going to go.

Please, Deputy. We are going to hear Deputy Cairns now, please.