Cuirim fáilte roimh all the visitors in the Public Gallery and the Distinguished Visitors Gallery.

The Taoiseach just said that housing is the single biggest issue facing us. We all agree on that but I do not know whether the Taoiseach agrees that the housing system is broken. It has been commodified and marketised. The private rental sector is filling the gaps left by lengthy social housing lists. Far too many people are in homelessness and the Government has presided over an extraordinary failure and a significant shift. We have seen home ownership rates dropping and people in Ireland are now renting in far larger numbers, not by choice, but by necessity, yet the Government has failed to update the law to protect renters. The irony is that the private rental sector receives plenty of public money but it is through measures that do not address the root causes of the crisis. There was nothing in last week's budget to offer that radical reset of housing policy that is so badly needed.

With the rental accommodation scheme and housing assistance payments, the State has taken responsibility off itself for housing those who should be in social housing. We all know that in the private rental sector there are thousands of would-be social tenants and thousands of would-be home owners who lack substantial protections such as security of tenure, affordability of rent and the ability to make their homes their own. Renters have far too few rights in Ireland and the relationship with the landlord for far too many is defined by the existence of a toothless regulator and the threat of eviction, which is a very real threat, because tenants who pay their rent on time and comply with the terms of their leases can still be evicted if landlords need the property for a family member, to sell it, or if they purport to plan to sell it.

The very worst manifestation for renters of the lack of rights is the threat and reality of eviction. Landlords continue to possess the broad liberty to evict tenants for no good reason and evictions are driving homelessness. To stop evictions, the tenant in situ scheme was supposed to be the safety net, funding councils to buy properties if tenants were at risk of homelessness. The scheme has kept a roof over the heads of more than 2,500 households, but unfortunately, the Government is not sustaining it. Its funding is uncertain.

The Government is now saying it will legislate to require landlords to disclose the rate of rent they charge tenants. That is something for which we have called for many years. A renters' register was in the first Bill I introduced as a TD in this House in 2021, the renters' rights Bill, but we need to see more from the Taoiseach and the Government. In particular, we need to see them reintroduce a measure that worked to slow homelessness rates during the Covid-19 pandemic, the ban on no-fault evictions. Will the Taoiseach consider this winter, a ban at least on child evictions? More than 5,000 children are now homeless and we are at risk of normalising child homelessness.

Thank you, Deputy.

Will the Government take a radical step to address this and prevent more children falling into homelessness and consider introducing a temporary eviction ban in cases where children are concerned?

The Government has responded to the Housing Commission. It has been asserted in public discourse that the Government ignored the Housing Commission in respect of the rental market.

It did.

I would argue that the Opposition has ignored the Housing Commission on rents because it clearly pointed to a reform of the rent pressure zones, RPZs. It said they were not fit for purpose and should not be allowed to continue. Once the Government and Minister came forward with reforms of the RPZs, balancing protections by making it full national coverage and other measures, there was a chorus of opposition from the Opposition-----

And from the Housing Commission.

-----and a pretence that the Government had not looked at the Housing Commission's report at all. That happened.

The bottom line is supply.

That is not what the Housing Commission said.

If you continue with eviction bans, rent freezes and all of that, you will depress suply. There is no doubt in my mind about that. If we keep doing judicial reviews, even against guidelines and regulations - the Deputy should not nod; these are the facts - that is paralysing the system. We want to get apartments built - different types, sizes and guidelines. The first resort of public representatives in the Labour Party, and other parties, is to go and do a judicial review, which will delay progress on that front by six or eight months. Everybody has identified the shortage of apartments as a key issue. The Government has moved through reform of the rent pressure zones, through changing the apartment guidelines and through the VAT cut, to try to get to a position where we narrow the viability gap so we get more apartments built. What do we face? We face judicial reviews and I do not think that is right. This is beginning to undermine the democratic voice in here because we are elected to do things and get things done but every step of the way, whether it is a wastewater treatment plant or infrastructure, there are judicial reviews and many of them are politically motivated.

From the Government’s perspective, we want supply, more supply and more supply. Housing supply numbers for 2025 in the second quarter, as the Deputy knows, were quite strong for that time of the year. There was a 35% increase year on year on the second quarter in 2024, a 20% increase for the year to date compared with 2024 and they are the strongest second quarter and half yearly figures since 2008.

And it is still going to miss its target. That is brilliant.

That is the bottom line. There is this refusal to acknowledge progress but we need to do much more than that. That is why the Government is doing everything it possibly can to get more houses built, get more apartments built -----

Jesus, that is not an answer for the people who cannot get a home. It is outrageous.

----- both on the social housing level, affordable housing and generally across the situation and we will continue to do that.

Thank you, Taoiseach.

Blah, blah, blah.

We brought in the rent credit, which is quite significant in itself and has been in terms of its impact.

Thank you, Taoiseach. Deputy Bacik.

I have listened carefuly to the Taoiseach's answer and every time I raise housing or the appalling and shocking figure of 5,000 children in homelessness with him, he engages in what I may describe as classic deflection tactics. Previously when I raised the failure to sustain the tenant in situ scheme, a scheme we welcomed, the Taoiseach blamed local authorities. Now he is blaming judicial reviews. The reality is the Taoiseach and his Government have to take responsibility for what is a housing disaster and what has become shamefully a normalisation of thousands of children who are in homelessness and many more thousands who are in overcrowded accommodation, with multiple generations of families under one roof, which I see in my own constituency. There are young adults crammed into childhood bedrooms, sometimes with their own children, because they cannot find a home to buy or rent that is affordable. The Government has to take responsibility for this. Of course we have to acknowledge where there is progress. I have just acknowledged progress with more transparency on rent rates. We welcome that.

I thank the Deputy.

We welcomed that and we welcomed tenant in situ but I am asking the Taoiseach this again.

Time is up, Deputy.

I am putting forward to him a constructive way to address the scourge of child homelessness and he has not answered that question.

I have. The Deputy has asked a range of questions, to be fair. On the homelessness question, the Minister is taking a different approach to the eviction ban because we believe the eviction ban will damage supply but what we can do in terms of homeless is have a very specific programme and an allocated resource. The Minister received €50 million earlier this year in respect of taking families out of homelessness and allocating social housing in a ring-fenced, specific way.

It is getting worse.

The Minister is committed to doing that and he received additional resources in the budget to double down on that and to have a particularly focused programme in respect of children in homelessness. As the Deputy knows, people enter and exit homelessness on an ongoing basis.

They do under this Government.

It is not normal.

The issue for us is to get families and children out of homelessness as quickly as possible. It is much more complex than has been articulated by the Deputy and others in this House.

Evictions are hugely important.

Homelessness is much more complex today, and the Deputy knows that.

What is the cause?

That reply is obnoxious - people responsible for being homeless.

Deputies, please.

That is why there will also be legislative changes to some aspects of what is going on as well.

I thank the Taoiseach. I call Deputy Holly Cairns.