Renters are already in an incredibly stressful situation having seen their rents doubled over the last decade and the Government is now not helping the situation by sowing confusion. It did that yesterday. The launch, as regards the understanding of it and the contradictory messages coming out, was an absolute shambles. The Taoiseach is at it again today. He told the Dáil just a few minutes ago that new tenancies after March 2026 will be capped at CPI. There was no mention of a reset every six years. Is the reset every six years gone? The Minister of State, Deputy John Cummins, told "Drivetime" yesterday that in all new tenancies post March 2026, the landlord will be able to reset the rent to full market levels. Has the reset every six years been ditched or is it still in place? The Taoiseach did not mention it. He did not mention it yesterday either. He would not once mention his reset of six years.

Rents are already completely unaffordable. In Dublin 8, just down the road from here, studio apartments are being advertised at €2,495 per month. This is two and a half grand per month to live in one room, basically. This is the dystopian future for renters which this Government has envisaged. Instead of protecting renters, its big plan is to use them as sacrificial lambs and to bleed them dry. Incredibly, the Minister for housing, Deputy James Browne, claimed yesterday that rents would eventually come down but he could not tell us when this was going to happen. Before being put in charge of housing, the Minister was responsible for gambling. It now seems he is gambling with renters' future and betting against them.

As a smoke screen for cutting rent pressure zones, they will be extended across the country. By giving landlords a heads-up about this, the Government has now incentivised them to jack up rents substantially. Furthermore, any accommodation that frees up between now and March is likely to remain vacant in order that landlords can charge sky high rents at that time and make maximum profits. Does the Government have any plan to deal with the hoarding of rental properties that it is now incentivising by announcing these measures? Another huge concern is the impact these measures will have on homelessness, which is already at record levels. Private rental has been a key route out of homelessness for people. That route will now be cut off because struggling families will be unable to afford the new norm of extortionate rents for new tenancies. That will mean more and more children growing up for longer in emergency accommodation, without a home. The Taoiseach was positively triumphant yesterday announcing these measures. Does he now accept they are going to lead to huge rent increases for most renters and that these measures will increase hardship, poverty, evictions and homelessness for renters?

No, I do not. Just because you use what I would call exaggerated language does not make it true.

You are telling untruths, is it?

I repeat that the bottom line is that all existing tenants will not have their rents increased beyond 2%. No attempts by the Deputy to sow confusion will change that reality. The more fundamental point in his presentation is that he and his party do not believe in a role for the market.

That is not true.

I listened to Deputy Hearne, his party spokesperson, say this.

That is not true.

Deputy Hearne does not believe in a role for the market. He said this. That is his position.

That is not true.

When did I say that?

He said it plenty of times. That is the bottom line.

Deputies.

The Taoiseach is running down the clock.

He has undermined-----

The Taoiseach cannot just make stuff up.

Sorry, I did not interrupt once.

Deputy Doherty, it is not your question.

What is intriguing is-----

I never said there was no role for the market. That is a lie.

You have attacked and condemned institutional funds-----

That is a different thing from-----

This is distraction tactics.

You have had your opportunity, Deputy, and now the Social Democrats-----

Ah come on. I know your-----

You are the Taoiseach for God's sake. You cannot make things up.

Ah you can. Sure you make them up every day for God's sake.

A Theachta, tá tú as ord.

Give us some more theatrics.

Go on out of that. Are you the leader of the Social Democrats now?

Give us another scene of your theatrics.

You are a good man for that yourself, in fairness.

Excuse me, Deputies.

You are well able to shout yourself.

You cannot make stuff up.

Will the Taoiseach answer the Social Democrats' question?

He would if they stopped interrupting.

The Taoiseach will answer if everybody stops interrupting. The Deputy has a rebuttal. He should use it. Will the Taoiseach please continue?

The Deputy opposite has made assertions in his Leaders' Question and I am quite entitled to respond to them. The bottom line here is supply. There is nothing coming from him on supply. The Housing Commission recommended reform of the RPZ scheme. The Social Democrats welcomed the Housing Commission report at the time and attacked Government for the failure to respond to it. I remember it well in the Dáil. All of the Members did. The Minister then got the Housing Agency to do a review of the RPZs, which are coming to expire at the end of the year anyway. When we announced that review and I referenced a few things in February, all of the Deputies opposite jumped up and said I was eliminating RPZs, the rent pressure framework and so on. All of this was untrue. It was just polemics. It was hysterical hyperbole. That is all it was. There was no substance to it at all-----

Answer the question.

-----because of course we have not got rid of RPZs. If anything, as Threshold has stated, we have significantly increased protection for renters while at the same time, in a balanced measure, we have created policy certainty for investment because we desperately needed more supply in the rental market. We clearly do if we are to get to 50,000 per annum. That is the piece the Deputy does not address at all. He has never addressed it-----

He is not the Taoiseach.

-----bar an SSIA-type investment scheme which would take a couple of years before you had the requisite funds to invest in capital in housing.

The State is already investing capital in housing to the tune of €7 billion plus. I put the question yesterday.

Thank you Taoiseach. Your time is up.

We need about €20 billion in terms of investment, made up of private sector and public sector. Tell me how the Deputy proposes to get private sector investment into the apartment market.

Thank you Taoiseach.

The Taoiseach knows that we put forward proposals to bring extra financing into housing. His criticism is that it is going to take a couple of years but his party has had decades at this and it cannot get the situation right. If it takes a couple of years to get more financing into the system, it is absolutely worth it. The fact is that most renters are going to face huge rent increases. The Taoiseach will not even mention the six years. Most renters are going to be facing huge rent increases at the end of six years of a tenancy.

No. That is not true

Please, Deputies.

They are going to enter new tenancies and the Taoiseach will not even acknowledge that. He will not acknowledge that in what he is saying.

It is not true.

It is true.

The Taoiseach should stop interrupting-----

Taoiseach, you can come back in when he finishes.

Tell us how many renters-----

I just said-----

What proportion of renters over the coming years will not face this reset to full market rents? Tell us that. Most are going to face that. When they end a tenancy, they are going to be in this new system where, effectively, the RPZ rent regulation is ripped up on them and they are going to face full market rents.

Sorry, all existing tenants will be capped at 2%.

Until-----

No-----

Yes, until-----

All existing tenants, when they stay in the tenancy, will be capped at 2%.

Until the tenancy ends.

Please, Deputies.

In terms of any new builds or new apartment builds-----

Or new tenancies-----

-----after March 2026, when the new legislation comes in, they will be capped-----

Or new tenancies-----

Please listen. The Deputy asked a question. All new apartments after March 2026 will be subject to a cap of the CPI, inflation. Then, six years beyond that, the landlord will be able to reset to market-----

Increase the rent-----

Up to the gills-----

Let me finish because Deputy O'Callaghan has done nothing on supply. The combination of that facility for new builds, which we do not have yet, by the way, and there are no tenants in them-----

And new tenants-----

-----and the CPI gives the basis upon which we can bring investment back into the market to get more apartments built because supply, ultimately, is the way to moderate rents.

Thank you, Taoiseach.

We are not going to do it by rent freezes or by this, that or the other that the Deputy's party has been proposing for the past two to three years, which will only conspire-----

Taoiseach, your time is up.

-----to reduce and suppress supply and allow rents to go up even higher.

Deputy Gogarty.