We move immediately, a little bit late unfortunately, to Leaders' Questions.

Yesterday, I raised the need to introduce an emergency ban on rent increases for three years. Even though workers and families are being hammered by relentless rent hikes, the Taoiseach again dismissed that call. Over the 12 years that Fine Gael has been in government, life has become increasingly hard for renters. In that time, rents have more than doubled. The latest Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, report simply crystallises the lived reality for renters. They are ripped off every single month. New rents are up nearly 12% this year. This is the highest annual increase since RTB records began. Even the news for existing tenants is bad. Their rents are up 5% across the State and 5.5% here in Dublin.

This has not come out of the blue. Since this Government came into office, the regular reports from the RTB and daft.ie have shown rents going in one direction, and that is up. What does this mean in real terms? Since the Government took office, across the State people must find, on average, an additional €3,800 to pay for a new rental. In Dublin, the price to renters for a new rental is an additional €4,700. Where on earth do renters, fleeced for over a decade and now living through a cost-of-living crisis, find that money? These extortionate rents mean that many young people are unable to save for a mortgage deposit. This sets them back in a very big way.

We also have a large increase in young adults living at home with their parents. Rents are too high and so the journey to home ownership has become increasingly difficult, impossibly difficult for many. According to the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, BPFI, nearly half of first-time buyers are now over the age of 35. The average mortgage taken out by first-time buyers has surged. It stands at €315,000 for new builds. Here in Dublin, the average mortgage taken out by first-time buyers stands at nearly €500,000 for a new build and over €387,000 for existing builds. I am sure the Taoiseach will agree this is crazy stuff.

The reality is that first-time buyers are saddled with higher debt and higher monthly repayments. Under this Government, home ownership is becoming more difficult, more distant and more expensive. All the while, the Government continues to set affordable housing targets that are far too low and keeps missing those targets. Tá sé in am d’athrú ceart i gcomhar cíosóirí. Caithfidh an Rialtas cosc a chur ar arduithe cíosa ar feadh trí bliana ar bhonn práinne. We desperately need a change in direction. We need now to give this generation the chance that it deserves. The Government must finally step up and tackle extortionate rent increases. The big question that renters are now asking is how bad it has to get before the Government intervenes with decisive action. When will the penny drop that an emergency ban on rent increases is required to give squeezed, ripped-off renters the space and breathing room they need to build a decent future? Renters are pushed to the brink. I am asking the Taoiseach to reconsider his position. I am asking him, again, to ban rent increases for three years.

I thank the Deputy. I appreciate that a lot of renters in Ireland are paying very high rents and that a lot of people who are renting do not want to rent. They want to be able to own their own home. The Government understands that lived experience. We do not agree with the Deputy's proposed policy of an across-the-board rent freeze for three years precisely because we think it would be counterproductive. It would reduce the amount of supply, reduce the number of rental properties available and leave more people with no place to rent, and would probably, therefore, lead to a rise in homelessness.

That is why we do not agree with the Deputy's proposal.

What can we do for renters? We can increase supply of places to rent. That would mean fewer people who are homeless and lower rents in the round. We do that by ramping up the supply of places to rent. We need more public and private homes and apartments. We do that by investing in social housing, in particular. I am proud to lead a Government that is building more new social housing every year than any year since the 1970s. I am proud to lead a Government that has made cost-rental housing a reality, whereby the Government provided rental properties for those who do not qualify for social housing. We are ramping that up, and will ramp it up a lot more over the next few years.

Social housing is something that benefits everyone. It does not just take people off the housing lists; it also frees up rental properties for other people to rent and exerts a downward pressure on rents and property prices. It is good to see that in the past ten years, the number of people who rent social housing from the State, and the number of families who benefit from social housing, has increased by 40,000. The figures have also increased in percentage terms. That blasts the myth from the fake left that somehow this Government or the previous one did not believe in or was not committed to social housing. Raw numbers, percentages - any way you want to look at it, there are more people who benefit from social housing today than was the case when the census was done in 2011.

The other thing we are doing for renters is the rent credit. It will be €750 next year and is €500 this year. Bear in mind, that is per renter and not per property. A couple sharing an apartment, who are both working and paying income tax, can claim €1,500 back. That is roughly a month's rent back into their pockets. If three people are sharing, the figure will be €2,250. I encourage people to take up that rent credit. There was a pretty good take-up last year, but not so much this year. People can claim it three years in arrears and I would encourage them to do that. Of course, parents can claim it on behalf of their children if they are students who are renting. That is making a real and practical difference for renters.

In terms of housing and being able to buy, I remind the Deputy that we are seeing record numbers of first-time buyers in Ireland, the highest we have seen in 16 years. That is encouraging. I want it to be a lot more. That did not happen by accident. It is because of increased supply, in part because we have suspended development levies, something Sinn Féin opposed. It is also because of the help to buy scheme, where we give hard-working young people their income tax for the past three years back so they can afford a deposit, something Sinn Féin opposes. It is because of schemes like first home, which bridges the gap between the amount the bank will lend you and the cost of the house. Again, that is something Sinn Féin opposes because Sinn Féin is actually against homeownership and that is the truth.

The realities are these. We have waiting lists for social housing that are unbearable. I have dealt with people who have spent years on social housing waiting lists. I assume the Taoiseach has also met these people and families. As he brags about social housing delivery, he should be very aware that tens of thousands of people who languish on lists know the real story. He talked about downward pressure on rents; there is no downward pressure on rents. I have just given him the figures. There has been a 12% increase in new rents, the highest since the RTB started to report. There have been increases of 5% to 5.5% for existing rents. This is a runaway train.

I ask the Taoiseach to intervene in a real and substantive way. If he was really interested in giving young people, in particular, the breathing room to put together a deposit and have the chance and option to purchase their own home, or even to live decently in rental accommodation, that is the action he would take.

I thank the Deputy. There is no need to be condescending. It may come naturally to you, but it is unbecoming of somebody who wishes to be Taoiseach.

Look in the mirror.

Once again, the Deputy engaged in misrepresentation and misleading behaviour, because she is the great misleader. I did not say that there was downward pressure on rents. I know rents are rising. I said that increased social housing exerts a downward pressure on rents, and that is just a fact. She knows that is a fact but it does not matter what I say. She will twist, manipulate and mislead because she is the great misleader.

Can you answer the question?

Of course I meet people all the time who have been on the housing lists for far too long. Anybody in this House deals with the huge number of housing cases in their clinics and constituency offices. I also meet people all the time who are now buying their first homes. I see the enormous joy when people get to move into their first home. I also meet loads of people who are getting social housing - over 1,000 people a month are moving into new social housing. There is one thing that a lot of those people have in common. They are moving into houses that were opposed by Sinn Féin.

How many houses did Deputy McDonald's party object to?

Please.

It must be thousands.

Deputy Farrell, can we have order for the leader of the Labour Party?

You must have missed "Prime Time".