It is "unprecedented", "dire", "an exodus". These are some of the words used to describe the chronic teacher shortage, with new research showing 800 vacant primary teaching posts across the State. The situation is set to worsen, with vacancies expected to hit 1,200 in the near future. A staggering 66% of these vacancies are in the greater Dublin area and the impact is being felt disproportionately in poorer communities, with nearly half of disadvantaged schools reporting vacancies in permanent posts. The price is being paid by vulnerable children going far too long without the important supports they need. Many schools have been forced to redeploy special education teachers to mainstream classes.

The seeds of this problem were sown by the austerity cuts inflicted on teachers by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil over a decade ago. This latest research underscores that the ability of teachers to build a good life has been hit hard by the housing crisis. On the watch of this Government house prices remain sky-high and rip-off rents continue to soar. Here in Dublin, where the teacher shortage is most particularly acute, the average selling price of a typical semi-detached house hit more than €500,000 this year, while the average rent in Dublin tops €2,300 per month. This is off-the-wall stuff. This grim situation is reflected across the country. Teachers cannot afford to rent or buy a home near their work so they are voting with their feet and moving abroad to take advantage of opportunities they are denied at home. Thousands of teachers say the only way they can move out of their parents' home is to emigrate. As the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, took the stage at the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO, congress last April, delegates held signs aloft which read "Teachers can't afford the rent" and "Build affordable and social housing" but clearly the Government did not get the message. It continues to miss the inadequate targets it set for affordable and social housing, refuses to ban extortionate rent hikes and refuses to provide the level of investment needed to tackle the scale of this housing emergency.

Fine Gael has been in power for 12 years, backed to the hilt by Fianna Fáil for seven years, and the housing crisis has gone from bad to worse. Change is now needed more than ever. Tonight, Sinn Féin will bring before the Dáil its plan to fix the housing crisis by building genuinely affordable homes, cutting rents and banning rent increases. I am asking every Deputy to back this motion and give a generation locked out of affordable housing the chance it deserves.

Níl ann ach léiriú ar an bhfadhb maidir le ganntanas imníoch múinteoirí seo ar ghéarchéim tithíochta atá ag éirí níos measa i rith an ama. Tá múinteoirí ag dul ar imirce mar nach bhfuil siad in ann teach ar phraghas réasúnta a cheannach nó teach a fháil ar cíos gar dá n-obair. Caithfidh an Rialtas dul i ngleic leis an ngéarchéim ar an bpointe boise.

The dire shortage of teachers is down to a serious deterioration in the living standards of teachers, including, and especially, their inability to put an affordable roof over their heads.

What action will the Minister, Deputy Foley, take to address these teacher shortages? How will the Government address the housing needs of these teachers?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. First of all, the Government and the Minister for Education are very aware of shortages of teachers affecting many schools around the country. We know that from time to time - too frequently - it means a special education teacher being assigned to a regular class and that impacts negatively on the child with special education needs. We understand there is a very real issue here. It is important to see it against a backdrop in which the number of teaching posts has increased considerably, the pupil-teacher ratio is as low as it has ever been and the number of teachers registered with the Teaching Council, far from having gone down, has in fact gone up in recent years. It must be seen in the context of a country that is now experiencing full employment. That is a great thing - a job for everyone who wants one - but, of course, it can have negative consequences too. It is not that staff shortages are unique to education; far from it. If the Deputy talks to any employer anywhere in the country, they will tell her how difficult it is to recruit and retain staff. It is the public sector and private sector, big business and small business, and well-paid jobs and poorly paid jobs. We will not properly understand the problems we face if that is not understood and fully acknowledged.

In terms of pay and conditions for public servants, such as teachers, they are negotiated between unions and the Government. We have a pay deal. It was voted for by teachers in good numbers and was implemented and resulted in a pay rise, most recently in October. Negotiations will begin in the next couple of weeks with public sector unions around the next round of pay increases. I am confident we will come to an agreement and that will go to a ballot of public servants, including teachers, as soon as an agreement can be made.

When it comes to the housing situation and the housing shortage more generally, this is a Government that is making real progress. I know the Deputy will struggle to acknowledge it but nobody can deny the facts we are seeing on the ground - the new homes and apartments being built all over the country. Just look at the numbers. In the past 12 months, we have numbers suggesting 30,000 or more new homes being built. That is 50% more than when this Government came to office, more than double the number when I became Taoiseach in 2017 and four times the number being built when my party came to office in 2011. You can only ramp up house building so quickly, unless you do not want to build houses properly. If you want to build houses and apartments properly, you can only ramp it up so quickly. It has quadrupled since 2011, is up 50% since this Government came to office and will go higher again next year.

What is particularly encouraging is to see a huge increase in the number of first-time buyers, with more than 500 first-time buyers a week now drawing down their mortgage. Of course, the real figure is much higher because we count couples as one when we look at those numbers. We have not seen that in 16 years. My concern with the Deputy's party is it wants to roll the clock back on that. It wants to take away the help we are providing for first-time buyers like those young teachers she mentioned. Most of them want to buy; they do not want to have to rent for too long. The Deputy's party wants to take that help away. It wants to take away the first-time buyer's grant, the first home scheme and so much help that is out there now for first-time buyers. They would be worse off under Sinn Féin and that is clear to anyone who looks at the facts.

We do not want to do that at all. What I would like the Taoiseach to do is-----

You do.

Yes, you do, Deputy.

Deputies, please.

No heckling.

The Deputy is misleading the House.

-----to answer the question I put to him. There are currently 800 vacant posts in primary schools. That is set to hit 1,200. That is a problem, I think we can agree. The teaching union is telling us directly that this is related to housing and the fact that teachers cannot afford to rent or buy a home close to where they work. I have asked the Taoiseach what he will do about that. His views on Sinn Féin are a matter for himself but they are not addressing this question. The teachers do not care about that. They want to know what is going to happen to make it possible for young teachers to take up these posts and ensure children get the education they need but the Taoiseach has come back with zilch. In the end, that is the problem with this whole housing debate. We could talk about nurses and the whole economy but we are talking about the teaching profession here.

When it comes right down to it, despite the evidence of failure, and everything the Taoiseach recited is half of what is needed, he cannot seem to accept even that there is a problem, much less offer solutions. Let me put the question again. What will the Taoiseach and Minister for Education do about these shortages to make homes available for these teachers?

To answer the Deputy's question, we will do three things. There will be a new pay deal which we will negotiate with teachers and public servants in the next few weeks. We are building more than 30,000 new homes this year and not objecting to them in the way the Deputy's party and her representatives do.

We will also increase the rent credit to €750 a year per renter, which is €1,500 for a couple and more than that if there are more than two people sharing.

I wish to put on the record of the House that the Deputy, the leader of Sinn Féin, misled the House.

That is not true.

She said that she did not want to take away-----

To attack-----

-----the help-to-buy and first home schemes.

That is not what she said.

It is Sinn Féin's policy to remove the help-----

That is not what she said.

She did. She just said it.

-----that this Government is giving first-time buyers.

This is all diversionary.

She wants-----

Pushing up house prices does not help first-time buyers.

-----to make it harder for first-time buyers to buy their first home.

Pushing up house prices-----

Everybody needs to know that.

-----does not help first-time buyers. The Taoiseach knows that.