Is léiriú uafásach na figiúirí a foilsíodh inniu maidir le polasaí tithíochta an Rialtais. Sa chéad trí mhí don bhliain seo, tugadh 7,062 fógra díshealbhaithe do thionóntaí, an figiúr is airde a taifeadadh riamh. Tá sé seo suas níos mó ná 50% ar an tréimhse céanna an bhliain roimhe seo. Ní trí thimpiste atá sé seo ag tarlú. Tá na rátaí díshealbhaithe ag ardú as cuimse ó d’fhógair an Rialtas a chuid athruithe tubaisteacha ar rialachán cíosa an samhradh seo caite. D’oscail sé na geataí tuile agus dúirt muid caidé go díreach a tharlódh. An nglacann an Rialtas anois go bhfuil a chuid athruithe cíosa anois tar éis an ghéarchéim seo a dhéanamh i bhfad níos measa?

Figures published today are a devastating indictment of the Government's housing policies. Eviction notices are up by over 50%. Mmore than 7,000 eviction notices have been issued to renters, the highest number ever recorded. These are real people, real lives and real families. They are workers, renters, young couples and older renters. Their lives have been thrown into turmoil as a result of the Government's policies. I am told of one couple in Galway who are in their 60s. They have worked all of their lives and have just been served with an eviction notice. The man told us that he has a pain in the pit of his stomach because they have literally nowhere to go. It is unconscionable what is happening to families like that at this stage of their lives. This did not happen by accident. The rate of evictions has skyrocketed since the Government announced its rent hike Bill last summer. The Government opened the floodgates. It was warned about what would happen. It was warned that weakening rent protections would drive up rents and that landlords would use these changes to force tenants out. It was also warned that renters would pay the price. Now, the evidence is in.

The figures to which I refer confirm that rents are continuing to rise. Rents went up again last year. At the very height of an emergency in housing, the Government decided to let landlords charge full market rents from 1 March in respect of new tenancies. The result was predictable, and now we are going to see rent hikes of between 20% and 25%. Thousands of extra euros must be found by renters every year. That means more pressure on workers, families and people who are already at breaking point in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

What makes people so angry is the fact that the Government knew exactly what it was doing. It made a deliberate political choice to side with institutional investors, vulture funds and landlords over ordinary Irish renters in the context of what was a charter for rent hikes and evictions. The reality that people are facing now is brutal. Rents are off the scale because of the decisions that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have made. Even when people can afford to rent, there is literally nothing available. Young workers are locked out of ever owning their own home. Couples have been forced back into their parents' box rooms. Families are lying awake at night, terrified about getting an eviction notice. Workers in their 40s and 50s are wondering if they will ever have security and stability in their lives.

While all of this is happening, the Government continues to miss its inadequate social and affordable housing targets. Supply remains nowhere near the level of demand. What exactly are people supposed to do? For many, there is nowhere to go. Everybody knows what comes next, namely more homelessness, more families in emergency accommodation, more young people forced to emigrate and leave our shores and another generation locked out of the possibility of secure and affordable homes.

Today's figures expose the reality of the Government's housing policies, which is more evictions, more rent, more insecurity and more homelessness. It is not an accident. Will the Tánaiste admit that the Government's rent changes have made this crisis dramatically worse? Will the Government reverse its disastrous rent hike legislation that continues to drive renters out of their homes?

I am grateful to the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, directors for the publication of their update today. When any report is published, it is very important not just to just cherry-pick one figure in isolation and present it as the reality or, indeed, the totality of the analysis that has been carried out by the RTB because, of course, that is not the case at all. In fact, the report that was published a very short time ago shows that there was a 39% decrease in the number of termination notices issued in the month of March compared with the month of February. While the Deputy might be right and while he may wish to scoff, the reality also shows that there was a downward trend from February to March in terms of termination notices. That is also in the report, but perhaps it was overlooked.

The report also shows that there are clear signs of continued resilience in the Irish rental sector. We see more tenancies and landlords in the market than we did at the same time last year. That is a statement of fact. There are more tenancies, more tenants, more landlords and more homes. In many ways, this also tallies with the information we have seen from a recent market report on daft.ie which showed a modest rebound in the availability of rental properties. We have seen 16,548 new tenancies registrations in the first three months of this year. We have also seen 246,477 registered private tenancies in quarter one of this year, an increase on last year. A total of 105,847 private landlords registered in the first quarter of this year compared to the same quarter last year. This report shows there are more tenants, tenancies, landlords and homes than there were this time last year. That is not to say that there is not a very significant housing challenge or that we are not still in the midst of a housing emergency, but it is to provide some fair and balanced analysis of the actual report that has just been published.

The Deputy referred to protection for renters. He knows, because he voted against them, that we took measures in this House to strengthen the rights of tenants. He knows that there are people in his constituency in Donegal who are now covered by rent pressure zones who were not covered before this Government brought in that legislative measure. He knows that since 1 March last, there is a rent increase restriction in place nationwide on all tenancies and that rent increases are capped at the level of inflation to a maximum of 2% for existing tenancies. He also knows that we strengthened tenancy protections, improved security of tenure, introduced tenancies of minimum duration involving rolling six-year tenancies and effectively ended no-fault evictions by larger landlords.

A point I would agree with the Deputy on is that it is about supply. We need to continue to build and provide more homes.

We are doing just that. We have built 241,000 homes since 2016, 36,000 of them last year alone. The Deputy talked about first-time buyers and people having the right to buy their own home. More than 27,500 people bought their own home in 2025, which was the highest number since 2007. More than 500 first-time buyers buy a first home every single week. When it comes to helping people in need of social housing, we have added over 85,000 new homes to the active social housing stock since 2016. We are building more social housing, with an additional 55,600 new-build social homes since 2016. Alongside that, we continue to keep supports in place, including the help-to-buy scheme, which the Deputy would get rid of, and the first home scheme, which he would get rid of as well.

We have serious issues when it comes to housing but we are now seeing more homes being built. We see more people being able to access tenancies. We are seeing more landlords in the market. We see encouraging figures when it comes to commencement of planning. We will continue to drive that agenda forward and get 300,000 homes delivered by the end of 2030.

The Tánaiste can spin this whatever way he wants but it is black and white. The truth is that he is deepening the crisis because of the political choices the Government has made. The Tánaiste can shake his head all he wants. Does he know what is happening out there? His Government, his party, the Fianna Fáil Party and the Independent Members who support them have opened the floodgates. We warned them about what was going to happen. The Government is allowing landlords to drive up rent. We said they would use the legislation to evict tenants and that is what is happening now.

The Government is presiding over the highest rate of evictions since the Famine. In one of the wealthiest countries in Europe, families are being driven from their homes in their thousands. That is what the Tánaiste is overseeing. We have told the Government time and again that its policies are failing people. That is why so many are giving up. They do not believe they have a future in this country and they are losing hope because of the Government's failures. The Tánaiste talks about affordable housing that costs between €2,500 and €3000 to rent every single month. It is simply unaffordable. Does he accept that the Government's legislation has allowed a situation whereby we now have more evictions than was the case during the Famine and that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are presiding over that?

No, I do not accept it. Of course, Deputy Doherty wants people to give up hope and to give up on this country because his politics thrives on that negativity and divisiveness. However, the people are much more reasonable than him. They know we are building more homes than the EU average. They know that Ireland delivered the strongest rate of new housing completions across 19 countries in the EU in 2024. They can see the homes and the cranes. They can see the figures. They know there are more first-time buyers than at any time since 2007. They know there are more tenancies and that we are making progress.

The reality is that all Deputy Doherty does each and every week is hop on the latest headline. While we are making serious policy decisions across a spectrum of housing challenges, he has no sense of direction.

What about evictions?

Whatever way the wind blows, Pearse goes. The problem is it does not add up. He wants to get rid of all the taxes and he wants more spending. He wants a mini-budget every week. Sinn Féin says it wants more affordable and available rental supply, yet Deputies opposite vote against every measure we bring forward. They are not even capable of responsible Opposition, which is why the people have never put them in government.