Despite the opposition of People Before Profit and most of the rest of the Opposition and protests last night, the Government insisted on ramming through a Bill relating to the RTB that is going to mean further hikes in rents which are already unaffordable, worsening an already dire housing crisis. The Government rejected amendments which proposed that rents be kept at affordable levels and that no-fault evictions should not continue. In the context of the purpose of the Bill, the Minister stated, "We do not want rents for long-term tenancies to fall behind market rents." The purpose of it therefore is to increase rents and make sure they do not fall behind a market that is completely unaffordable.

No doubt the property speculators, the corporate landlords and the vulture funds will be rubbing their hands with glee because they are set to be able to ratchet up rents and make even more profits off the back of the housing misery huge numbers of working people, young people and students in this country are experiencing. The human cost of all of this is going to be significant. I will provide an example, namely that of Michael and Shannon, a young couple in their 20s. Michael is working and Shannon was working but had to give it up because of their housing dilemma. They have two young children, a two-year-old who came in here with them last night and a nine-year-old daughter, both of whom have special needs. They are facing eviction in the next week by a small landlord, which will still be allowed under the legislation, through no fault of their own.

They are facing the prospect of emergency accommodation. They are nine years on a council list but with no prospect of a council house. They are on the three-bed list. They have been approved for HAP and told to go out and try to find a HAP tenancy but the limit is €1,912. That is the homeless HAP limit. They can pay a bit of a top-up on that which they cannot really afford. The cheapest rent today in south Dublin is €3,100 for the number of bedrooms they need. As the report confirms today, nothing is available in most areas of the country within the HAP limits. The same family has been hit by the council rent hikes that the councils are putting up.

How is the Bill going to help them? Is it not the case that after 1 March their prospect of finding an affordable rental property is now absolutely gone, as it is impossible at the moment, and that their vulnerable children with special needs are now facing the prospect of going into a hostel? Shannon was breaking down in tears in front of me with her partner saying her kids cannot go into that situation. What does the Tánaiste have to say to Michael and Shannon?

I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett. I say to Michael and Shannon and to all people across the country in need of housing that every action we take is to increase the number of homes that are available to rent or buy. That is not just one type of home. It is more social homes, more affordable homes and homes through the Land Development Agency, LDA. Quite an incredible the number of homes are now receiving some level of subvention from the State to be built. It is also private homes because private homes and private investment are good and there are lots of people who want to buy their own home and see either themselves or, indeed, their adult children be able to move into one of those homes.

I take the Deputy's point relating to the HAP limits. I know Deputy Boyd Barrett has been a strong advocate for this. There is a commitment in the housing plan that will be concluded in the first half of this year.

I would push back, as the Deputy would expect me to, around the point he made in relation to this kind of corporate landlord capture. I have heard a lot of this in the past number of days. I do think this is in the space of misinformation. Small landlords make up 88% of all landlords in this country. They are providing 45% of all private tenancies and these reforms are explicitly designed to also help retain landlords while improving tenant security. We have to do both. If a small landlord leaves the market, tenants lose the ability to rent a home. There is a cause and effect here. Small landlords and landlords are not the enemy of the public good as is often portrayed by the far left. It is a vital part. Who is going to rent the homes if there are no landlords?

Deputy Boyd Barrett does not agree with my political outlook on the world but Michael Byrne of the school of social policy, social work and social justice in UCD specifically said that what is being missed in the current discussion is that the new legislation that was passed last night in this House is designed, once established, to reduce the level of notice of terminations. That is what the professor in the school of social work and social justice said our Bill is trying to do, that is, when it is enacted, to reduce the number of notices of terminations. So, yes, as is always the case, there is teasing through the legislation and debating and discussing different elements of it and what people think is good, what people think is bad and what people think should be better. However, we should not misrepresent the purpose here. People are looking at this Bill, including the Dublin Simon Community which acknowledges and welcomes the tenant protection elements of this legislation while having different views from us on other elements of the Bill.

We have to increase supply. We have to keep landlords in the market, particularly the small landlords, and at the same time we have to make sure that, for the very first time in Ireland, we have a nationwide, permanent system of tenant protections.

I do not say this dismissively of the very serious situation Deputy Boyd Barrett's constituents are facing, and that he rightly raised, but I do not have the specific information relating to any individual case. However, we are increasing the number of social homes and we are increasing housing supply. We have been very clear on what we are going to do in relation to HAP. We are living in a country again where almost 100 homes are being built every single day.

Factually, the number of landlords has increased in the past two years. They are not leaving the market.

That is a good thing.

There was 103,000 landlords two years ago and now there are 105,000. There are 2,000 more landlords than there were and more tenancies. So, the Government does not need to enrich them even more at the expense of tenants.

What are Michael, Shannon and their two kids supposed to do? Does the Tánaiste think it is acceptable that their two vulnerable children with special needs go into a hostel, which will damage and traumatise them? Shannon was bursting into tears with fear and she is joining the parents of thousands of other children, many with special needs, and parents who are struggling. Their chances of getting out of emergency accommodation are now diminished because there will be no affordable rents. No rents are affordable under the HAP limits anyway but now there are definitely going to be none because all of the new tenancies after 1 March will go up to market levels, which are absolutely unaffordable. Has the Tánaiste got anything to say other than at some point the supply is going to come on stream? Seriously, that is not a response to people who are terrified for their kids about what is going to happen next week.

It is not at some point that supply will come on stream. Supply is increasing despite the Deputy's best efforts, whether it is objecting in his constituency to housing developments. That is a cause and an effect-----

There he goes blaming the Opposition again.

-----if you object to a house, Deputy O'Reilly does too. I know Mary Lou does. If you object to houses, and I have never objected-----

It is everyone else's fault but the Government's.

The Opposition does not like the truth.

I have never objected to a home and nobody in this House should. I do not care what party they are in. They should stop objecting to houses. Everybody should stop. There is a housing emergency, end-of.

We do not object to houses; we object to profiteering.

Surely to God we can agree on that.

We object to profiteering, not homes.

Would Deputy Boyd Barrett allow the Tánaiste answer? He asked the question.

That is my political point which I am entitled to make. Nobody in this House should object to housing. I feel very strongly on that. I hope we can all agree on that.

I am not sure whether Deputy Boyd Barrett is upset that there are more landlords in the market or not by what he just said. If we were to see an increase, that is a good thing but his figures are not comparing like with like because, as he knows well, we now register approved housing bodies in relation to tenancies as well. So, he is not comparing like with like. If the Deputy thinks there is a flurry of people putting up their hand saying they want to be a small landlord, he is not engaging across his constituency as I know he does.

Thank you, Tánaiste.

In relation to Shannon and Michael, I hope Deputy Boyd Barrett's office and everyone in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council will engage very proactively to assist them.

We certainly are. They have been told to go to a hostel.