The Government won a confidence vote in Dáil Éireann yesterday by a substantial 14-vote majority.

You lost the people.

That is the reality, despite the Deputy's description of what transpired yesterday. The truth is that I am extremely disturbed that Deputy McDonald has not yet, as the main Opposition leader in this House, had the courage of her convictions or the decency to separate what is right from what is wrong. Yesterday, one of her Deputies could not condemn threats or intimidation against An Garda Síochána. On a programme last night, Deputy Kerrane was asked a straight question-----

-----"Do you condemn the threats and the intimidation of gardaí?"-----

That is a question for you.

-----and the Deputy said, "I do not condemn the protesters."

That sort of question is for you, Taoiseach.

On what happened, I fully respect the right of people to protest, even the people in the Gallery in terms of the Dublin City Council situation in regard to rent. People are entitled to protest. In my view, you seem incapable of saying it is wrong to blockade our only oil refinery. You cannot say that is wrong, even though it would have led to a scarcity of oil supply and an increased fuel crisis. You cannot say that it is wrong to blockade ports, even though it would destroy our economy.

You are avoiding the question, now.

You cannot say it is wrong to intimidate bus drivers. You do not have the courage. You are weak as a political party. Absolutely.

Oh, that is nasty.

That is not true.

Nasty Taoiseach.

You could not do it. You tried to jump on board. That is the sad-----

I did not interrupt you, Deputy. I would appreciate-----

I have a few things to say .

What about the flats, Taoiseach?

I fully respect the rights of people to protest.

They do not like the truth.

What about the flats? There is one minute to go.

I fully respect the right of people to protest-----

Deputies. Exactly, what about-----

I fully respect the right of people to protest but surely it is possible in this House for us to get agreement on basic rights and wrongs in terms of what should and should not happen.

That is something you have not been prepared to do. I regularly engage with people in terms of protest.

I am not a member of Dublin City Council. We have a system of local government in this country and there is a differential rent system. It is a critical piece of the State's system of local government which, as you know, is far better than the private rental sector or anything near it. It is subsidised housing costs and supports households. I believe Dublin City Council should do far more in terms of regeneration. We have funded local authorities up and down the country in terms of regeneration and they should do more-----

The Government underfunds them.

-----in terms of refurbishing flat complexes, in particular, which I have been in in recent years and which I accept are not acceptable. A lot of capital money has been allocated to Dublin City Council and, essentially, there is a huge issue of housing maintenance. The city council obviously has a revised rent structure now. It is a matter for Dublin City Council, the executive and the council itself to explain and defend that. We do not run the councils.

But the Government underfunds them.

Let us not pretend we do. I know the by-election is coming and I accept that but we do not run councils from Dáil Éireann and it is disingenuous and dishonest of the Deputy to say-----

Deputy McDonald to respond.

-----that I could not care less. We have eight councillors in Dublin City Council out of 60. The Deputy is in attack mode. That is what she does generally speaking.

Thank you, Taoiseach. Your time is up.

I condemn all forms of intimidation. Anybody who has known me in any part of my life knows that while I may lack many things, I do not lack courage. I do not lack courage.

What about this specific one?

Let me tell the Taoiseach this. He has shown us again exactly who he is. I have asked him to address the lived reality of people from Cabra, Sheriff Street, Seville Place and East Wall. I have named all of the neighbourhoods and told the Taoiseach about the conditions people are living in. They are like something from Strumpet City . I could not describe to the Taoiseach how bad the living conditions are. There are families, women and men, who week after week and month after month paint over mould, scrub mould off their walls and who panic because their children have asthma or other medical conditions because they live in conditions that are not acceptable. Does the Taoiseach know that it is the norm in the inner city not even to have room to have a kitchen table?

The Taoiseach to respond.

That is what the Taoiseach has presided over.

Deputy McDonald. The Taoiseach, please-----

The Taoiseach is now trying to gouge these people for more rent.

Deputy McDonald, your time is up and I have said we will have no red clocks today.

I want the Taoiseach to tell them those rent hikes will be cancelled.

Hear, hear.

The Taoiseach.

Dublin City Council is responsible for housing policy. Government funds local authorities the length and breadth of the country.

Obviously not enough.

You underfund them.

Sorry, it funds them very substantially, and funding has increased-----

Allow the response.

It was obviously not enough.

Funding to local authorities has increased very significantly over the past five to six years.

No.

It has not.

It was obviously not enough.

There is no question about that. Also, the number of social houses we are building that are of a very high quality is the highest since the 1970s. There were close to 12,000 social houses delivered last year.

You did nothing for decades.

There is the highest number of direct builds ever built in our country - 8,500. There is a lot of work going on in social housing. I am not specifically responsible for what transpires in Dublin City Council and it is a matter for the council. Again, I have to go into the details of what is proposed. I do not have the details of the specific differential rent scheme the council is introducing.

Thank you, Taoiseach. Deputy Ivana Bacik