A few weeks ago, a young family in Dublin saw their lives unravel. They were renters living with their two small children and like anyone else, they just want a secure home for their kids to grow up in and to build their lives as a family. Their nightmare began when they were evicted. Their lives were turned upside down. They now sleep in emergency accommodation. It is hard to imagine the trauma for this young family and their two small children. It is hard to imagine how to even begin to explain to a child why they are being uprooted from their home and placed in emergency accommodation with their parents unable to answer their questions about what will happen next because they, themselves, do not know.

Another family in Bray are also homeless. The mother, Lauren, is a nurse. She now lives in a car because she cannot find anywhere remotely affordable to rent. She has had to send her two children to live with relatives because she cannot find a home for them. Can the Taoiseach imagine how heartbroken that mother felt as she was forced to make that decision and how confused the children must be? These families' experiences are not unique; in fact, they are, sadly, all to common in modern Ireland because of Government's failure to get to grips with the housing crisis.

Figures from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage last Friday revealed that 12,259 people in the State now live in emergency accommodation, a new record on the Taoiseach's watch. It is a staggering figure and a figure that should never be normalised. It includes 3,594 children living in emergency accommodation. Let me say that again. As we speak, there are 3,594 children in emergency accommodation in this State. Of course, we know the real homeless figure is much higher as these numbers do not include people sleeping on sofas, in family spare rooms or, indeed, in their cars.

Children are being uprooted from their schools and uprooted from their routine. They are wondering why they can no longer play with friends in their neighbourhood. Tá na mílte páiste ag fulaingt ó thráma na heaspa dídine, an saol acu millte agus iompaithe bun os cionn toisc nach bhfuil áit acu gur féidir a dteach féin a thabhairt air. Tá sé seo ag tarlú ag ráta níos airde agus leanfaidh sé ag méadú faoin Rialtas mar níl an Rialtas ag dul i ngleic leis an ngéarchéim thithíochta.

Homelessness is increasing. The Government decided to end the eviction ban without a safety net in place to protect renters. It was warned time and again that this was a bad decision, but despite this, it went ahead with it. It rejected Sinn Féin's plan to extend the eviction ban and put in place protections for renters. The sad reality now is that, despite how shocking the current figures are, we are not even at the peak yet. There is now a real risk that hundreds more children and their families will add to these heartbreaking figures in the course of the summer. What interventions is the Government making today, tomorrow and next week to prevent more children becoming homeless?

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important question. I acknowledge that we have a real and serious problem of rising homelessness in Ireland. More than 12,000 people today are in State-provided emergency accommodation.

Emergency accommodation is available for almost everyone who needs it but emergency accommodation is not the solution. We seek to avoid people having to use emergency accommodation in the first place. If they have to, we seek to get them out of emergency accommodation into a secure tenancy as soon as possible. Approximately half will spend six months in emergency accommodation and most will spend less than a year. In the life of a child that can be a very long time and I acknowledge that. It is important to point out that it is not the same 12,000 people all the time. People might spend a few weeks or a few months in emergency accommodation and sometimes, unfortunately, longer but we do our best to avoid them becoming homeless in the first place and we then get them out of homelessness into a secure tenancy as soon as we can thereafter.

In terms of solutions, the main solution is to prevent homelessness happening in the first place and the second is to continue to increase the amount of social housing we are building all the time, in order to increase the social housing stock we have so that people and families can be in more secure, State-provided social housing rather than the private rental sector. As for what we are doing to prevent homelessness, we are continuing to fund NGOs and charities such as Threshold that will give people advice on their rights and work with them to prevent homelessness happening in the first place. We do that through the local authorities as well. We have allocated funding for 1,500 additional social homes to be leased. With roughly two or three people in each house, that is maybe 3,000 to 4,000 people prevented from becoming homeless in the first place. There is also the tenant in situ scheme, which is now working very well. We have given authorisation for local authorities to buy 1,500 homes off landlords who are selling up. Again, with two or three people in each house, approximately 4,500 people will be prevented from going into homelessness in that way. Of course, we are also continuing to ramp up the supply of social housing. Last year more social housing was built in the State than any year since 1975. We intend to improve on that again this year and the year after but we have a long way to go before we make up for the deficit that built up over the years.

On the eviction ban, as I have said before, two eviction bans have been imposed on a temporary basis. Both happened while I was in government. I certainly have no ideological objection to bringing in an eviction ban. I have done it twice. The problem is that it does not work. As we saw from the most recent eviction ban, the number of people in emergency accommodation continued to rise pretty much every month when it was in place. All it does is make the problem worse in the medium and long term. It is made worse in the medium term because eviction notices build up and there is a bigger problem to deal with when it is lifted. In the long term, most significantly, it reduces the supply of homes to rent. That makes the problem worse in the long term. I can see the attraction of it as a short-term policy but we know from experience now, from the two eviction bans that happened, that it makes the problem worse in the medium to long term. That is why it is not a wise policy.

While the Taoiseach acknowledges the scale of this crisis, and that is perhaps welcome, I hear no urgency or real sense of purpose from him in dealing with this issue. He lists off the things that he envisages as solutions to this crisis but the reality is that the number of homeless people and homeless children continues to rise. Let me ask him again. Faced with this crisis, what does he propose to do now to put pace on this, to give urgency and to ensure we avoid the calamity of more children becoming homeless in the course of this summer? An approach that says, "mañana, mañana, we will get it done at some stage", is not good enough, particularly when dealing with the lives of young children. The Taoiseach has been in government for a very considerable time.

Thank you, Deputy, time is up.

He sat around the Cabinet table and designed the policies that have led to this calamity. Let me ask again. What will he do now to change direction, to enhance things and to give a real emergency response to these families who find themselves in crisis?

The Deputy asked what we are doing now and what we are doing today. First, we are providing additional funding for local authorities and NGOs this year to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place. Second, additional emergency accommodation is being provided so there is emergency accommodation for almost everyone who needs it, if they do need it. Of course, emergency accommodation is not a solution; it is a stopgap. Some 1,500 extra social homes are being leased this year, ahead of what was planned.

That can prevent maybe 3,000 or 4,000 people becoming homeless. The tenant in situ scheme, which is really starting to work now, allows local authorities to buy the house or apartment if the landlord is selling up thus making sure the people in that house or apartment do not lose their tenancy and become homeless in the first place. Those are the things we are doing today, tomorrow and yesterday and every day until we start seeing these numbers fall again and I believe they will fall again.