Today we got news that we all knew was coming. The Government's new rent rules have already driven rents to a record high. They are rising at the highest rate in a quarter of a century. Year on year, rents are up 7% in Dublin, 13% in Cork and a whopping 18% in Galway. We told the Taoiseach this would happen and these measures would undermine renters and he said it was "a ridiculous assertion". Now it is renters who are paying the price.

Lauren Keena worked hard, sat her leaving certificate in 2025 and got her dream course in Galway. Because she knew she could not afford to live in the city, she put her life on hold for a year and worked full time to save up. I spoke to Lauren yesterday after seeing a video she posted online in tears at the heart-breaking struggle to find a place to live in Galway. She has tried everything - hundreds of emails, viewing after viewing, applying on rent.ie, daft.ie and through agencies, private student accommodation, digs and every avenue possible, but has found nothing. After nearly a year on a waiting list for private student accommodation, she was finally offered a studio, but the condition was €12,000 upfront for nine months, with no monthly instalments allowed. How is anyone supposed to afford that, let alone somebody fresh out of secondary school?

Lauren said something else which stuck with me. She said she feels embarrassed. No young person should feel embarrassed to be in this situation. The Government should be embarrassed for failing them. Right now, this feels like a country with no vision for young people, no place for them and no future they can afford. What are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to work harder and save more? They are already doing that but it is not working because the housing system is fundamentally broken.

We have all been knocking on doors in Galway, so I am sure the Taoiseach has seen the same thing I have. Everywhere you look, there are lock-boxes hanging from houses turned into short-term lets, houses that could be homes for students, workers or young families. Instead they are Airbnbs going for extortionate rates while young people like Lauren are left crying into their phones, wondering what they are supposed to do. At what point is the Taoiseach going to admit that Ireland is becoming a country that young people simply cannot afford to live in? Will he now admit that his rent rules have been a disaster?

First of all, again, rents have been too high for far too long. Any economist will say there is only one way to deal with this and it is supply. We need more supply and we need it more rapidly. The Government is taking decisions that will ensure over time we get more supply. It is going to take time and that was said at the time.

When?

With respect, I did not interrupt.

Do not interrupt again, Deputy Hearne.

I have not interrupted anybody here.

I am going to make this point, and it is a fair point. I have looked at the Deputy's proposals. There is nothing in her proposals that would increase supply over the next three years anything over and above what the Government is doing. In fact, it would be less. I have looked at her State construction company idea. It would be three or four years down the line before anything would come out of that. We already have a Land Development Agency, which has 14,000 in the pipeline. It is time people got real here. It is all very well doing the sloganeering. We all know the crisis out there in housing. The Government is taking decisions in respect of it that have substance behind them. We need to get to 50,000 per annum. I have seen nothing from anywhere across the House outlining how people propose to get there in terms of alternative proposals to what the Government is proposing. We have activated the local authorities, approved housing bodies, the Land Development Agency and, yes, the private sector. The Deputy is totally opposed to the private sector having any role in housing. That is her party's position.

That is totally untrue.

Are you not happy with your leader posing the question?

False.

That is the Deputy's party's position.

You have said it a lot of times, Deputy Hearne. You have been saying it.

Excuse me. The rules are the rules. This is Leaders' Questions. If you are not happy with the leader you have asking the question, maybe you would consider changing that but respect the answer to the question that has been asked.

We are not happy with that leader.

You cannot say mistruths.

We will continue now.

The RTB data shows we have about 246,000 tenancies, the highest on record. In terms of daft.ie data, it indicates asking prices but it is not comprehensive. The RTB does a more comprehensive dataset in terms of the entirety of the market. One has to take these figures with some degree of care, as the author himself acknowledges that the report has to be examined with care. That has to be said. The bottom line here is we want rents to moderate. We want to get them down.

When?

The bottom line is what was happening over the past four to five years prior to the change was not sustainable. The Deputy knows that. The Housing Commission said it was not sustainable. The ESRI said it was not sustainable. Everybody accepted it was not sustainable.

How is €3,500 a month sustainable?

Deputy, I am not going to ask again.

Therefore certainty had to be given to the market, and also additional protections. In terms of existing tenancies, they have not been impacted in any shape or form by this to the same extent. Again-----

Ask the I-RES REIT tenants.

Deputy, I am not going to tell you again.

No, they have not been impacted and the Deputy knows that too but that will not get said. We are talking in terms of the newer tenancies here. We need more supply.

They have been evicted in record numbers.

Deputy Hearne, you are free to leave if you cannot comply with the rules.

Sin an rud is tábhachtaí.  Caithfimid i bhfad níos mó tithe a chur ar fáil chomh tapaigh agus is féidir linn agus sin atá faoi chaibidil ag an Rialtas.

The confidence with which the Taoiseach tries to slate the Social Democrats' policies on housing is honestly astounding, when we consider that he is coming in here on a day when there is news that rents have gone up more than they ever have since records began. That is in the context of a housing crisis that has turned into a housing disaster and then into a catastrophe, where there are record levels of homelessness, where rent prices, house prices and homelessness are all going in one direction under this Government. Then the Taoiseach stands up in here and says our plans would do damage. The Taoiseach's response and his rhetoric on housing are now ringing about as hollow as his election promises. Time after time, piece of legislation after piece of legislation, the same thing happens. The Opposition warns him. We tell him this will bring up rent prices. He does this big how dare my doubt my bona fides thing, and then rents go up. Then he comes in here and spouts out these lines about how the Opposition's plans will not work. It is not credible. This Government has no credibility left on housing.

I do not think the Social Democrats' proposals are credible. They are so sparse. They are so lacking in detail. They are not fleshed out. I genuinely do not think the Social Democrats' policies on housing are credible. They talk about a savings and investment scheme.

It has worked in France for a hundred years.

It would take years to implement. They know that.

If the Government had started a year and a half ago-----

The issue here is not funding. The State has put up €9 billion.

How long has the Government been standing over housing policy? It will be a decade of the housing needs review.

The Deputy knows. Let us talk about the savings and investment scheme that they put forward. How would that bring rents down next year? How would it bring rents down the year after? It would not add one additional supply of housing-----

Of course it would.

----until about four or five years' time, even if they got the additional funding. That is the point I am making. Their housing construction company is so poorly fleshed out-----

Why did the Government not do it four or five years ago? Better late than never. It is not too late.

I do not mind having a debate about housing. Let us debate it.

Deputies, if you do not listen to the answer-----

The Government made decisions for the institutional investor funds.

No, we absolutely did not. We did not.

Yes, it has. That is why it increased the rents. It absolutely is.

Taoiseach, excuse me. This is not a back and forth. I suggest Deputy Hearne go away and learn the rules of the House. The Standing Order for Leaders' Questions is a back and forth between the leaders. Do you have a difficulty with that? At any stage, if you cannot comply with the rules or the Chair's direction, you are free to leave, as is any Member. We have a lot of business to do today and I intend to get on with it. Do you wish to finish, Taoiseach?

Just to make the point about research from the RTB. If you compare like with like and apples with apples in respect of the other data reviews that have taken place, it is a far different story in terms of the impact on existing tenancies in particular.

Time is up, thank you. Deputy Tóibín is next.