Rip-off rents continue to spiral out of control on the watch of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The latest daft.ie report shows new rents increased by 4% across the State in the past year. They are up by 6% in Galway and Limerick, 9% in the Taoiseach's city of Cork and 11% in Waterford. The Government sat back and allowed average new rents to hit a staggering €2,080 per month or €25,000 per year. While renters are fleeced, the Government provided no increase in the renter's tax credit in the budget. It is now pushing ahead with a Bill that will remove the one very limited protection afforded to renters and enable landlords to increase rip-off rents even more. If the Government cared at all about the pressure renters are under, it could not and would not go ahead with this disastrous plan.

Hear, hear.

The key to this is housing supply. Our initiatives since the beginning of the year have been designed to get more houses built more quickly. The rate of increase is in decline, but that is not enough. We need far more supply to deal with the rental issue. Some positive news is that the percentage of first-time buyers has been steadily increasing, as I said, from about 23% of all household buyers in 2015 to 35% in August of this year. We want to continue that momentum. If we look at the situation internationally, right across Europe and the globe, there are housing crises more generally. That is the case in any of the major cities across Europe. We would probably rank in the top three European countries in terms of investment in construction. That is the key. We have to build more houses faster.