Mine is a simple question today. How can the Minister say his Housing for All policy is working when over 4,000 children are homeless? Everyone deserves the dignity of a roof over their head, and the basic responsibility of the State to provide shelter and homes is even more pressing when it comes to children and young people. On the formation of the First Dáil, the first document produced was the first Democratic Programme for the new Republic. Labour's significant contribution to that delivered the strong commitment that the first duty of the Republic would be the welfare of all its children, a principle as resonant today as it was a century ago. In the intervening years, so much has changed and our economy has grown, but we cannot say that this is an equal Republic for every child. Our Republic has not discharged its vital duty to protect the welfare of our children.

Next Friday, we will learn yet more grim records have been broken when August's homelessness figures will be published. Already, 4,401 children are in emergency accommodation in this State. That heartbreaking figure is not indicative of a working housing policy. Indeed, it represents a shocking increase of more than 70% in child homelessness over the three years since Housing for All was launched. This is not just an empty statistic because each child in homelessness is a child whose life has been blighted by the experience. There are children doing their homework on the floor of a hotel room and a family hampered and humiliated by a failure that is a failure of Government. No amount of glossy pamphlets or flashy press conferences from the Government can obscure the reality that for those who seek a home, things are getting worse and not better.

On every key metric, the Government's housing policy is failing. It is failing people of every generation. It is clearly failing our children. It is failing renters because the Government failed to incorporate the protections we proposed in our renters rights Bill. It has failed because there have been rent increases of 27% over the past three years. It has failed because more than 23,000 eviction notices have been issued from quarter 2 of last year to the second quarter of this year alone.

The Government is failing those who wish to buy a home. The average age of a first-time buyer is now 39 and the CSO has revealed that house prices have increased by almost 10% in the past year. That news comes on the same day that the Central Bank warns that the Government will miss its house building targets this year. I know the Taoiseach has assured us that the Central Bank is wrong, but the Government has consistently missed targets on social housing and the dogs on the street know that the targets are too low anyway. The Central Bank, the Housing Commission and many more agree with us in Labour that new targets of more than 50,000 new builds per year must be published. We have not seen those targets yet. Speculation about election dates is now rife. That speculation is going everywhere. The Minister's Government colleagues have thrown around spending promises all summer like confetti at a wedding. We all know there is a very limited time left to this Government. In the limited time available to the Government, will it change tack on housing, invest the Apple billions in delivering homes, introduce real protections for renters and, crucially, pass our homeless families' Bill to protect children and keep them out of homelessness?

I thank Deputy Bacik for her questions and comments. Those in emergency accommodation and homelessness remain the number one challenge for this Government. In a number of counties across the country, we are seeing continued decreases in the numbers accessing emergency accommodation and increasing exits from such accommodation. In quarter 2, 630 households were able to exit emergency homelessness accommodation into safe and secure homes. The big focus for me and this Government is to continue the increase in social housing output. Last year, we delivered more new social homes than we have done in over 50 years.

Shame.

We will hit our social housing target this year. We have delivered over 6,000 affordable housing solutions this year. When we came into government, there were no affordable housing solutions. There was no cost-rental housing or secure tenancies for working people. Nearly 2,000 tenancies have been put in place through cost rental that we legislated for and funded. We will see a continued increase in house building and delivery across the country. In the past 12 months, there have been over 50,000 housing starts.

Regarding the Central Bank projections, that is a matter for it. Central Bank projections in the past couple of years were off and we know what the pipeline is. There is a pipeline of about 25,000 social homes alone being built or in design and planning at this stage. The number of focus remains an increase in housing output, along with good public and affordable housing and private housing.

There are now almost 500 first-time buyers a week purchasing their homes, the highest number since 2006. Many first-time buyers are using the measures we brought in, such as the first homes scheme, which has over 11,000 registrations. The first home scheme bridges the gap for first-time buyers. Nearly 50,000 household have claimed the help-to-buy grant, whereby they get €30,000 of the tax they have paid back into their pockets to help with a deposit. Those numbers are increasing all the time and this will remain our focus.

To be fair, the Deputy and her party colleagues have always been very constructive with regard to the debate on housing. It is still a challenge. The single biggest focus I and this Government have is continuing to exit people from emergency accommodation to safe and secure housing. As the Deputy and I know, as I chair the national homeless action committee, this is a complex issue. People enter into emergency accommodation for a myriad of reasons. Those reasons can include notice to quit, family break-up or a number of other reasons. We publish that data very openly and transparently every single month, as we will do again on the last Friday of this month.

I am optimistic, based on the fact that the number of exits are increasing substantially and nearly a thousand households have been prevented from entering emergency accommodation in quarter 2 of this year due to measures like new build homes and the purchase of homes for tenants in situ, which has been an unquestionable success and is continuing into this year.

I listened carefully to the Minister's response but no matter how many figures he throws across the floor at me, on the key metrics his housing policy is failing. Rents, house prices and homelessness are all up. The Minister said the number one challenge is ensuring that people can exit from homelessness, but the number of exits is simply not keeping up with the number of entries into homelessness. I gave him the figure of 23,000 notices to quit in the 12 months between the second quarter of last year and this year. The primary cause of people entering homelessness is because they cannot find a home. They have been evicted and cannot find a home that is affordable to rent or buy.

I again ask what change in tack the Minister will make in the limited time left to him and his Government to ensure that we see a change and do not see an awful increase in homelessness at the end of every month. He published the figures and is well aware of the rising number of children in homelessness. What is he going to do about it in the next few months? I am offering him a constructive proposal. We published our homeless families Bill, backed by NGOs in the sector and those working on the coalface with families in homelessness. Will the Minister adopt our Bill? He supported it previously in opposition. Will he adopt it now and try to have some change to help support children in homelessness?

We have to make sure that where people end up in a situation where they do not have a home, they are supported in the best possible accommodation that can be provided for them for as short a time as possible.

That is the reason for the Government support this year to the tune of €242 million for homelessness and emergency services and we will add a supplementary to that this year. I have always given the commitment to the NGOs in the sector that whatever funding is needed will be given. Last week, Focus Ireland acknowledged that it is optimistic about the number of exits from homelessness because of the increase in social housing output. The Government has delivered 115,000 new homes since it came into office and that was from a very low base, I might add. By most fair assessments, people would see that as progress. However, significant challenges certainly exist and my main focus is on continuing the housing output, which I believe will be between the high 30,000s and 40,000. That would be a significant step up. It will be made up of €5 billion in investment in housing the Government is making-----

And the targets?

-----on behalf of our citizens. It is the most significant investment that has ever been made in the history of the State. However, we are dealing with a situation of significant under-delivery over a ten-year period and catching up on the pent-up demand.

Homelessness and exiting people from it remain the number one focus of me and the Government.