The so-called rent reform plan the Government announced yesterday is a shambles. The Taoiseach is literally all over the place, confused by his own back-of-the-envelope proposal and unclear as to what he is saying. There is one thing that is clear - the Government's plan will push up rents even further. It is only a question of when renters will be hit. The Government will allow landlords themselves to set a market rate for rent. After 1 March and throughout the course of next year tens of thousands of renters will face higher rents. Some will pay full market rent at the start of their tenancy and all will face big hikes at the end of their tenancies. Tenants entering new build properties will be hit with market-level rents on day one and, with rent increases tied to inflation thereafter, they are set to see their rents rise sharply. Fianna Fáil rolls the dice on housing once again.

The Government does all of this with no guarantee that it will lead to any significant increase in supply. The Housing Agency is very clear on that score. Even in the most optimistic of scenarios, the Government's plan will see landlords of high-end apartments in exclusive pockets of Dublin charging eye-watering rents but in the rest of Dublin and in every other county there will be no extra supply but there will be much higher rents. In fact, there is a very real danger the Government's plan will actually tighten supply as landlords will now delay putting properties back on the market in order to charge a higher rent from next March. The Government says it will extend the rent protection to the 20% of renters it has left behind over a number of years. These are renters in rural areas, who have been hit by double digit rent increases already. If the Government does not act to extend that protection immediately, these renters will be put at immediate risk of big rent hikes as landlords move to get ahead of the Government's changes.

Then we come to the confusion the Taoiseach sowed in this Chamber yesterday. It was clear from the statement issued by the Minister, Deputy Browne, at lunchtime that the Government's plan is to allow all landlords to apply full market rent at the end of six-year tenancies. This clearly meant people staying in an existing property and signing a new tenancy agreement, along with people moving into a property for the first time. Then the Taoiseach was caught out, so throughout the afternoon he scrambled around, denying this was the case and then, sometime in the evening, somebody slipped off and, bizarrely, changed the press release on the Department website to have a new wording - a wording that changes nothing.

This is not about protecting renters at all. This is about making renters carry the can for the Government's failure in housing. The Government will allow record rents to be hiked up in the pitiful hope that big investors will save the day. It is the same casino behaviour that created this mess in the first place. Tá plean an Rialtais maidir le cíos imithe in abar idir neamhréiteach agus neamhinniúlacht. Is é an t-aon rud atá cinnte ná go rachaidh cíos in airde gan aon chinnteacht go dtiocfaidh feabhas ar an soláthar.

Why is the Government delaying extending the rental protection until March? Why is it allowing landlords to set the market rate rents themselves? What analysis has the Government done? Can the Taoiseach tell us how many renters will be hit by massive rent increases from 1 March under the Government's plan?

Hear, hear.

I dtús báire, ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Níl aon bhaint ag an méid atá ráite aici leis an bhfírinne. Níl suim ag an Teachta leis an bhfírinne, áfach. Is é atá i gceist ag an Teachta, agus Páirtí Shinn Féin, ná a bheith i gcoinne gach aon chinneadh a dhéanann an Rialtas, gan aon pholasaí soiléir dá chuid féin a chur os comhar an phobail. Is é sin bun agus barr an méid atá ráite ag an Teachta McDonald. Ní aontaím léi.

Just because the Deputy keeps on saying untruths does not make them truth. The fundamental reality is that existing tenants will stay and their rents will be capped at 2%. That is clear. Any new tenancies after 1 March 2026, after this legislation, will be capped by the CPI. That is also very clear. The Deputy has sought to sow confusion. Of course, she condemned this over the weekend, before she even saw the detail of the plan. During the past couple of months, she declared RPZs would be eliminated. She did not expect this package of measures.

There comes a stage when Deputy McDonald needs to start proposing solutions, because supply is the bottom line here. This is a balanced package of measures which protects existing tenants but gives policy certainty to them and to investment and investors, which is required to dramatically increase the supply of housing and apartments in the country, to get from 30,000 to 50,000 per annum for a sustained period of time. I see nothing in anything the Deputy has proposed that would go anywhere near trying to attempt to increase supply of apartments and supply of housing.

I listened to her this morning and it was all bluff and bluster on "Morning Ireland".

The Taoiseach has some nerve to say that.

She is back to the vulture funds-----

What about tenants in situ, or the tenant in situ scheme? Where has that money gone?

She then said this morning that if the Government is intent on using institutional funds, it is on the wrong track. Well, go back a few weeks and just replay what Deputy Eoin Ó Broin said on Virgin TV where he acknowledged-----

Try answering my questions.

-----and recognised a role for institutional funds in the Irish market.

Please, Deputy.

Who do I believe here? Do I believe Deputy McDonald this morning? Do I believe Deputy Ó Broin? Do they believe there is a role for institutional funds? Or, when it is into politics, they just change the term and call them "vulture funds", because it plays well, or they think it plays well.

That is very ignorant.

It is just clichéd bingo announcements. That is all they are at. I heard the Deputy this morning.

Please, Deputies.

It was just bluff and bluster. The bottom line here is-----

You have not answered any of our questions.

I have answered the questions.

If we look at what Threshold said, for example, it said it is very clear that "the changes announced today will - with well-designed legislation and effective enforcement – this will be a huge jump forward in providing long-term stability to renters." It welcomed the national extension of rent pressure zones. We will be bringing in legislation to deal with that specifically as quickly as we can. In the next week or two, I would like legislation before Government on the specific point of extending them, which is something Deputy McDonald should welcome and not just attack again and try to pick holes in something. It is a good measure and is something people called for.

It is a dog's dinner-like.

I am sorry Deputy Mac Lochlainn, but your leader is quite capable of asking questions and of answering. Please refrain-----

I am just giving commentary.

Threshold is saying that for the first time, private renters could have secure occupancy of their home for a set period, something that does not currently exist, and Deputies opposite are attacking all of this. They are making absolutely false assertions, because all they are interested in is the politics of this and how they can exploit the housing situation to get electoral or political gain for the party.

Thank you, Taoiseach. Your time is up. I call Deputy McDonald.

They have no solutions and no proposals, in terms of the supply side of this.

Homelessness is increasing.

Housing crisis.

The only person who has managed to sow confusion is the Taoiseach, ably assisted by the Minister, Deputy Browne. I am very glad he was listening so attentively to me this morning. I hope he heard my appeal again to him to stop screwing things up. It is almost as if the Taoiseach deliberately set out repeatedly to make a mess of things. Deputy Martin is the Taoiseach, accountable to the House. I have put questions to him. They are reasonable and fair questions that renters all across the State are asking. Here is his fair and balanced package. For the investors - yes, cuckoos and vultures - what do they get? They get the opportunity for a higher rent yield. That is the big attraction into the market to boost supply, as the Taoiseach would have it. Of course, they pay not one cent in tax on their rent roll. That is nice, is it not? That is for them. Then what for the renter?

Thank you, Deputy.

The only certainty is that rents will rise. When the Taoiseach takes to his feet he might answer the questions I asked originally in respect of rolling out protections and what analysis has been done in respect of rents going up.

Thank you, Deputy. Your time is up. You are now way over time. I call the Taoiseach.

The Housing Agency provides the platform for the review that the Government has acted on. We have acted. We have taken decisions. I am not hanging around here. I am not interested in Deputy McDonald's bluff and bluster because it will contribute nothing to housing supply in this country. That is the bottom line. I did listen to Deputy McDonald this morning and she said to me it was back of the envelope stuff.

It is back of the envelope stuff.

What does Deputy McDonald say? She says Government wants to take the shackles off the big funds, which is a great sound bite. She says she has asked the Government to stop screwing things up. When asked about Sinn Féin's alternative plan, it is to enable the builders to just get out and build. What a fantastic plan. What a really detailed plan that is really going to get things going, is it not? Then, of course, she condemns the vultures and cuckoos but, meanwhile, Deputy Ó Broin will meet with them and will recognise the role of institutional investors in his attempts to be super-cerebral in discussing these issues. However, Deputy McDonald will come in and go on about cuckoos and vulture funds because it plays well to what she considers to be her base.

How embarrassing.

Suigh síos. An embarrassment.

She then finishes by saying, here is my solution. She says, "For the love of God, get the builders building. That is my plan."

Thank you, Taoiseach. I call Deputy Ivana Bacik.