Renting has never been more expensive or less secure than under the Taoiseach's Government. This week, daft.ie published its figures for the rental market for the start of this year. Rents are now climbing faster than at any point in the previous 20 years. Average new rents are now over €2,000 a month. That is an eye-watering €24,000 a year on rent. In Dublin city, new rents now average €2,500 a month. That comes to a €30,000 yearly rent bill. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, how can working people afford these rents? How an earth could anyone save for a home while paying such extortionate rent? People are getting ripped off and they are sick of it. It is no surprise that young people are going to Canada and Australia. What chance do they really have to make their life here?

It has never been harder to rent a home, buy a home or get a council home. We are in the middle of a housing emergency. It is a crisis that requires emergency measures but there is absolutely no sense of urgency from the Government. I have never seen a Government move so slowly or achieve so very little. In six months, the Government's most significant piece of legislation was to increase the wages for the biggest ministerial team ever seen. We have seen week after week of statements and committees limping into place. This is a real do-nothing Government. Of course, it blames everyone else for its failures. It is the Opposition's fault. It is the local councils' fault. Now, the Taoiseach's housing Minister is blaming the one modest protection that renters have; the rent pressure zones.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, the Minister for housing, Deputy James Browne, said that rent caps were "significantly inhibiting the delivery of apartments in Dublin." To decode that, what he actually means is that vulture funds are telling him in order to invest, they want to charge even higher rents. The Minister said there has to be change. He said there is no question about that. What does he mean? Does he mean the rent pressure zone cap is to be raised? Does he mean that landlords can reset the rent between tenancies to new market rents? Does he mean that new rental properties will be completely exempt from control? Renters need to know what the Taoiseach's Minister means because any of these measures will mean even higher rip-off rents for tenants.

Tá an cíos ag méadú níos tapúla anois ná ag am ar bith le 20 bliain anuas. I lár ghéarchéim costas maireachtála ina bhfuil an praghas ar gach uile rud ag dul in airde, conas atá oibrithe in ainm is a bheith in ann €2,000 a íoc in aghaidh na míosa mar chíos? Tá a fhios ag daoine go bhfuil drochmhargadh á dhéanamh leo agus tá siad braon de.

In the same interview, the Minister, Deputy Browne, promised to protect renters. That is gaslighting renters - he is speaking out of both sides of his mouth. He tells landlords they can jack up rents while at the same time, he promises tenants protection. Of course, that is not possible. He cannot do both of those things at the same time. Can the Taoiseach and his Government come clean? Are they caving into the demands of vulture funds for even higher rents or are they going to give renters a break and stop these rip-off rent increases once and for all?

The Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, rent index is the most reliable indicator for rent prices. It was published on 15 May and, according to the RTB, the standardised average rent for new tenancies rose nationally by 5.5% year on year to €1,680 in quarter 4 of 2024 while the rents for existing tenancies rose by 4.6% year-on-year to €1,440. These are high rents. We are under no illusions about that. Even if those figures represented a decline in rent levels from the previous quarter, quarter 3 of 2024, and continued the downward trend in the growth rate of rental levels observed since early 2023, of course, the rents are too high. The fundamental issue is supply. Deputy McDonald said she had never seen a Government like this. I have never seen an Opposition so bereft of ideas and so lacking in conviction of the housing issue. That is the bottom line.

Listen to the defensiveness.

Look at it overall and look at the context. Across the European Union and many western economies, they are having this dilemma in the mismatch of housing demand and supply. In a European Union context, Ireland is probably doing more than most in increasing housing supply.

No.

Is it 40,000?

In terms of real investment in dwellings, the Irish economy registered the fourth largest increase across the 27 EU countries. The recent ESRI publication comparing housing supply across Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales found that on a per capita basis, Ireland and Northern Ireland have the highest rate of housebuilding and Ireland and Scotland have the highest rate of publicly built housing. That is against the backdrop of a significant population increase, persistent strong economic growth and income growth and huge pressures on housing.

The Government is spending very significant amounts of public capital money on housing. We need more private sector investment. The Housing Commission, which Sinn Féin supported, called for a review of the rent pressure zones. The rent pressure zones are effective in terms of protecting renters and rent increases. However, all of the established literature, and the most recent quarterly bulletin from the ESRI, says that long term, we are restricting the growth of supply in the private market. By the end of 2025, State investment will certainly go close to €9 billion. We are at approximately €8 billion at the moment for State expenditure on housing. The Department of Finance says we need approximately €20 billion to get to the targets of what we need and the targets that everybody in the House is agreed on.

The Opposition is so lacking in any initiative in terms of how we bring private sector investment in. It is a serious issue.

The Taoiseach is blaming the Opposition again. He also blames the local authorities. Anyone but himself.

You can smile all you like but we need to be real with people here. It seems to me that what the Opposition really wants is for us to stay static in policy terms so that we end up not actually making the step change that is required on housing.

Protect people. That is the job the Government is meant to do.

Parallel with sustained investment from the public purse, the Exchequer, we will need a significant increase in private sector investment. We need to be in line with the Housing Commission and we will see what the review brings forward but we most certainly need to create a secure investment landscape for investment in housing into the future on the private side to supplement the record levels of public sector investment in housing that we currently have in this country. The first quarter of this year alone in terms of housing supply is the highest since 2004 - bar 2008 - bar the Covid bounce in 2023 that came up.

In summary, I want the Taoiseach to stop screwing it up. That is actually what I want. I want the Taoiseach to take account of the fact and accept the fact that he is presiding over an emergency and a catastrophe. There are record levels of homelessness. This society is now so numbed to your failure that record numbers - there are almost 5,000 children in homeless accommodation - do not really cause a ripple in the public conversation. The Government has normalised its catastrophic failure. An entire generation is locked out of any prospect of homeownership and they cannot afford the rent.

They are voting with their feet. They are in Perth and Toronto. They are not in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick, where we need them and their skill, energy and vitality. I asked the Taoiseach to explain comments from his housing Minister. I want him to answer straight. What did the Minister mean in respect of the one modest protection the Government has afforded to renters, in the rent pressure zones? What are his intentions? Is the Government siding again with the vulture funds or will it finally side with tenants?

Ar dtús báire, ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Níl an ceart aici. Níl mórán déanta aici maidir le fadhb na tithíochta. Tá sé sin soiléir.

Ní sé sin soiléir.

The Deputy has not addressed the core point I made. We need private sector investment. The Deputy used the phrase "vulture funds". I believe-----

We are back to the heckling because the Deputies do not like the answers. I believe in public sector investment. We have provided 48,000 social houses alone in the last four years. We have the highest level of social housing provided by any Government in over 20 or 30 years. That is a fact.

The Government never built any.

That is not enough.

We exceeded our targets in Housing for All, with more than 30,000 houses over the last three to four years. That is a fact, but it is not enough. We need private sector investment. Deputy McDonald calls it vulture funds. We need institutional funding in the country to supplement the State-level investment. That is the problem. In the last election, Sinn Féin had proposals that would screw first-time buyers.

In the last election, you told lies. You lied your way through the election.

Those proposals are why the people did not give Sinn Féin any ringing endorsement of its housing promises. It failed to convince people about them.

The Taoiseach lied his way through the election.