"Certainty, clarity and stability for the rental sector" were the words of the Minister for housing when he introduced his disastrous rental reform Bill in February. He did mention the word "eviction" once. As predicted, this new law has caused carnage in the private rental sector - not stability, just chaos. There were over 7,000 notices of termination in the first three months of the year. That was a 51% increase on the year before. It is the highest level of evictions ever recorded. There are record and ever-growing levels of homelessness, with 5,604 children now officially homeless.

It is a terrible record and the new normal. It never gets the media coverage or outrage it should. Whether they are from Ireland or not is irrelevant; it is a child without a home. This week, the Tánaiste had a go at local authorities but the problem they have is the lack of powers to act whether on dereliction or homelessness. The Labour Party has long campaigned with Focus Ireland to require local authorities to take the best interests of the child into account when working with families who present as homeless. The Government has failed to act on this for nearly a decade. There are many things we can do to address evictions and homelessness. We all know we need more supply but the Government has been saying that for a decade and the problem keeps getting worse. The housing committee today published an important report on homelessness. It includes 14 recommendations, all suggestions those of us in opposition have previously called for in some form or another. We know preventing homelessness is the best use of resources. It keeps people in their existing home and is much more cost effective. The Chair of the committee, Deputy Carrigy, was correct on "Morning Ireland" when he said no child should have to spend any period of time in homelessness. This committee, which has a Government majority, has called for a child homelessness strategy, an emergency package of measures to reduce homelessness and, critically, is open to an emergency ban on no-fault evictions for a defined period of time. We have the highest level of evictions since the Famine and the Government has the power to do something about it. Will it stand up for the thousands of children without a home? There is a Government housing Bill going through the Dáil right now. Committee Stage resumes today at 12.30 p.m. You can introduce a ban on no-fault evictions, stem the tide of rising homelessness and protect the best interests of the child. I ask the Tánaiste for a straight answer - if it will not ban evictions, what will the Government do before the summer recess to reduce homelessness?

I agree with a variety of things the Deputy said but I fundamentally disagree with the baloney and spin coming from some local authority officials in relation to dereliction. Deputy Sheehan represents a county and city with an excellent record in tackling dereliction. Last time I checked this country has one national set of laws. It is quite simple; I am not buying into this idea that all local authorities are performing equally well when it is simply untrue. Eleven did not bother collecting a cent. I can find more derelict properties in County Wicklow on my nightly walk than the entire local authority can find in the course of a year. We have to take this deadly seriously, speak with one voice as an Oireachtas and when we say dereliction is a scourge, put in place a variety of measures to help people fix it such as the living city initiative, croí cónaithe with the vacancy grant and CPO powers. Some local authorities are doing a bloody great job and we thank them for that. Some are not treating this like an emergency. It is as simple as - no one is going to change my mind on this but we are going to change the law because they cannot be trusted or depended on to deliver on this so we will bring in the powers to rectify this through the Revenue Commissioners. I know this from my own councillors. They tell me they raise it week in, week out at council meetings across the country. Councillors are frustrated about this as well. Dereliction is a scourge. Everybody needs to take it much more seriously including local authorities. Some like Limerick are doing great but some are not doing well at all and it is not on.

In relation to the best interests of the child, I agree with the Deputy as does the Government. We will amend the Housing Act 1988 so that it will be very clear that in the decision-making process on accommodation for households the best interests of the child are included. I also agree with the Deputy and the committee on the child and family homelessness prevention plan. It is committed in the Government's national housing plan. It will be published before the summer recess. I will make sure the points in that committee report, if they are not already encompassed, are given further consideration because it is an important area we all want to make progress on across parties.

We made changes on the no-fault eviction ban in March in relation to new tenancies and a no-fault eviction ban except for some small landlords. That was an attempt to get the balance right between increasing renter and tenant protections and supply. We also expanded RPZs and brought in six-year tenancies. They are practical measures. Next week we will see the rural planning guidelines to help make it easier for people to build in their communities. In the budget there will be dereliction taxation to help to tackle dereliction. This week saw housing activation funding to try to get housing going. Every day, we take more measures together to try to make a real difference. We saw in the past that a blanket no-fault eviction ban resulted in a significant spike in notices to quit when it was lifted. We need to be careful. That is why the wording of the report is quite careful in asking that we keep matters under review.

The Tánaiste said local authorities cannot be trusted or depended on. That is an outrageous statement. It is the centralisation of power in the Custom House that has weakened the ability of councils to build new homes, prioritise children in homelessness and tackle dereliction. The measures the Tánaiste spoke of regarding security of tenure are completely undermined by the market rent reset mechanism baked into the legislation which allows landlords to reset rent to the market rate in between tenancies, exposing renters, the most vulnerable people in housing, to record double-digit rent increases. The Tánaiste's own backbenchers are talking about the need for a ban on evictions. What emergency measures will he take before the summer recess? Why will he not recognise that only a ban on evictions will actually reduce homelessness?

I am really confused with the Deputy's position on dereliction because he is defending the system rather than the people the system is meant to represent. People are being let down by inactivity on the derelict sites levy. I gave the Deputy an open goal and said his own council is doing a great job. Limerick is one of the best. It has no superpowers the rest of the country does not have except maybe on the GAA pitch. There are 11 local authorities that did not collect anything. It is not good enough. Deputies can come into this House, kick me around and say the Government needs to do more on housing; that is fine. The Government has a major role to play in housing but so does local government. It is unacceptable that more than €26 million could have been collected was not. We saw in the excellent journalism of "RTÉ Investigates" bizarre baloney in the excuses why this had not been taken more seriously. I am not commentating on this; I am acting. That is why this week I brought forward proposals to bring in a derelict site tax because if they do not take it seriously we will. The Deputy is defending the system but it is letting young people down. I have the table here; it is available. Look at the local authorities that did not collect any money and did not think there was any dereliction in their own county. It is not good enough. This Government is not living by arbitrary deadlines of what more are we going to do by this or that date. Every day we come to work we take more concrete actions help to tackle homelessness. This week it was the housing activation funding across the country including the Deputy's county. The child and family homelessness action plan is the next major step we will take before the summer recess.