Last year the Minister of State, Deputy John Cummins, was clear. Modular units in people's back gardens would not be available for rent on the private market. He said: "I don't see this as a rental measure. I see it as facilitating intergenerational movement." There was broad agreement across the Opposition. These units could help families and they should but opening them up to the private rental market was always going to lead to exploitation. We can already see exactly where that road leads. On Clare Street in Dublin, up to 22 people are crammed into one house, paying up to €890 for a bed. That is in a room with three or four other people, with the landlord raking in almost €20,000 a month. This is not a functional housing system. This is a return to tenement conditions which were rampant in the worst years of this State. It should not be tolerated but this Government seems to think differently.

Today, the Taoiseach is calling it practical and pragmatic to charge market rents for cabins in back gardens. Let us be clear about what that means. It means charging €2,000 to €3,000 a month for a shed in someone's garden with no tenancy rights because they would be rented out using licensing agreements. The same loophole is already being used in Clare Street right now. These renters have no security of tenure, no statutory notice periods, no rent controls and no access to the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB. Renters are being thrown to the wolves and this Government is telling them they should be happy about it. It is outrageous.

I know so many young people across the country are angry today but more than that, they are exhausted. They look at this Government and what it is doing and they just despair. Taoiseach, would you blame them? What exactly is the Taoiseach's vision for young people in this country? Is it for them to be ripped off by landlords, to scrimp and save to live in garden sheds, to be denied their tenancy rights? Unfortunately, that is the legacy the Taoiseach is leaving. For anyone watching today, I want to be clear.

There are solutions to the housing crisis, such as establishing a State construction company, modular home factories to dramatically increase the supply of affordable homes, a new State savings scheme to raise billions to fund them, and a ban on no-fault evictions to protect renters instead of treating them like second-class citizens. These are all political choices the Government could make but refuses to. How can the Taoiseach justify renters being charged extortionate rents to live in back gardens with no tenancy rights?

The Deputy looks at the world through one prism when it comes to housing; we look at it through another. In my vision for young people, housing is number one and it means a relentless focus on supply. The Social Democrats have opposed all supply measures in this House for the last number of years and they keep on criticising every single initiative that we have undertaken. If we do not get supply up, we will not moderate rents. All the rest is just populist waffle if we do not really focus on what matters.

The Deputy talks about legacy. When the previous Government was formed in 2020, direct social housing builds were in the low thousands. Last year, in 2025, we built 9,000 social homes, the highest on record since the State was founded. While I can never be happy when it could higher, that is a reasonable legacy in terms of permanent provision of social housing. The good news is that up to 23,000 more are in different stages of design and development. That is one aspect. The others are affordable and cost rental.

Yesterday I was at a sod-turning for 800 new units, not cabins but real units in Richmond. The Tánaiste was in Drogheda where about 600 new units will be built. The Minister, Deputy Browne, will be in Drogheda tomorrow for, I think, another 600. Those are sod-turnings for 2,000 houses and apartments this week alone. We built 36,000 houses last year, delivered in 2025. That is the highest since records began and up 20% on 2024. Some 170,000 houses have been built since 2020, with 50,000 apartments built. On planning momentum, 8,000 permissions were granted in quarter 4 of 2025, up 19%. Permission was granted for 20,000 houses in 2025, the highest since 2009. There have been 8,000 commencement notices in quarter 1 of 2026. These are facts. It is not enough; we want to get to 50,000 per annum.

In terms of the exemptions, the Deputy said exemptions were a good idea if just for family members. I think that is what she said. If it is just for family members, are they no longer cabins? The Deputy used very derogatory language when she said they were for rent, but if the very same structures are built for family members what are they? They are not cabins anyway, because they have to be in alignment with the existing building record regulations. I think many people will welcome this.

Are you going to check it?

We will keep it under review. We will look at every single way we can ease pressure on people, ease pressure on the private rental market and also give opportunities to people. We will follow up with guidelines for rural housing. We have a crisis with housing but we will never solve it if we criticise every single measure that a Government introduces, which the Social Democrats have been doing for five years. I believe we have to explore every option to get more houses built.

When the Taoiseach comes in here week after week and gives this profoundly positive spin about housing, I have to wonder if he even feels convinced by his own words. We do not just have record rents and record house prices; we have record homelessness. We are talking about more than 17,000 homeless people, including more than 5,500 children, and the Taoiseach comes in here and gives this unbelievably positive message. He then says that this Government is not out of touch. It is difficult to even respond to but ultimately, it is evasion, deflection and a way of avoiding the question so I will just ask him again. Does he accept that people renting these cabins, these sheds in people's gardens, will not have any protection or any renters' rights? Is he okay with that? If not, what is he going to do about it?

I am solution driven in terms of housing and the Deputy is not.

Answer the question.

Sorry, I am answering the question. The Social Democrats, for example, voted against all residential zoning proposals on Fingal County Council. Two weeks ago, when the council agreed development plans to zone for 5,000 additional homes, the Social Democrats opposed them.

Shocking.

They opposed the project in Ballymastone as well. People are now living in those houses. The Social Democrats cannot just keep opposing everything and claim they are serious about housing. That is the point I am making. Choices have to be made. As regards the planning in terms of the exemptions and so on, it is a major package of exempted development regulations to reduce planning bureaucracy. Planning bureaucracy has slowed us down in terms of housing provision. This will speed up delivery of additional units and maximise existing housing stock. It frees local authority resources for large-scale projects, introduces clear national standards, allows subdivision of homes to create just one additional unit, simplifies attic conversions and supports rental supply. The rent-a-room relief applies.

All waffle. Answer the question.

All of that will happen.

All waffle.

No, it is not.

The Taoiseach will not answer the question.

I am very clear: we will reduce the pressure on the-----

What about renters who will be stuck renting these-----