The Taoiseach's comments on homelessness yesterday were shameful. They were beneath him and his office. In Dublin alone, the number of homeless families increased by 33% last year. I was at a Society of St. Vincent de Paul briefing earlier and there has been a 65% increase in homelessness for children in the past year alone. For the Taoiseach to home in on what he homed in on yesterday in the broader context of the homelessness crisis does not make sense. Because he is apparently outraged about it being referenced this morning, I will quote him so he does not say I am misrepresenting what he said. He is quoted as saying there are "lots of people in emergency accommodation [and] have refused multiple offers of social housing." He is homing in on that, even though there is a whole other big picture in relation to homelessness. As the Taoiseach, he cannot say things like that and then feign outrage when people hear exactly the same thing. Will the Taoiseach please reconsider his comments from yesterday?

He said it twice.

I am happy to rephrase if it is helpful. If I said "plenty" or "lots of", I am happy to use the term “some”. I was specifically asked about cases of people in emergency accommodation for several years. I know some of those cases because I am trying to help those people. In some cases, people have been offered accommodation and have turned it down. There are people on the social housing list who have been offered accommodation and have turned it down. Sometimes they do it for very good reasons, and I acknowledge that, but to try to twist that and make out that somehow I am blaming people for the housing crisis is just fake. It is populism and misrepresentation and is beneath the Deputy.

The Taoiseach said it twice yesterday. He said it twice deliberately to get the headlines he got. He said it here and at a press conference. That is the truth of it.

It is a year since the Government received the report into defects in apartments, which revealed the shockingly widespread nature of serious defects, mostly fire defects, in the majority of apartments and duplexes constructed between 1991 and 2013 as a consequence of the regime of self-certification. At the start of this year, thankfully, the Government said we were going to have a 100% redress scheme with retrospection. However, there has not been any action. It has not done anything to help these people. In particular, there have been no moves on emergency funding.

The other day in Park West, there was almost a very serious fire. We know there are defects there. That building was highlighted in "Prime Time". When someone threw a cigarette butt out of a balcony, it blew back in and landed on artificial grass, which went on fire. We need emergency action now. The 100,000 families simply cannot wait.

This is something we are working on, both in terms of funding in the short term for emergency works that need to be done in relation to fire safety and a wider scheme, which will require legislation and which we will put in place to help people who need defects in their apartments repaired. That will be done with retrospection.