I agree with Senator Paschal Mooney and again request a debate on the issue of homelessness and the wider issue of housing. However, I disagree with the Senator's assertion that there is adequate protection for tenants. We are heading towards the eventuality of 1,000 families in the Dublin region being homeless by the end of this year. They are being made homeless because they cannot afford to pay rent increases, some of which have been in the region of 35% in recent years. There are no protections against economic evictions. The main reason for this is that there is no protection against unreasonable rent increases. The call for rent certainty is based on the fact the latter would allow people to have a reasonable expectation as to what would be a fair limit in the context of rent increases. I ask Senator Mooney to consider his position on that.

I bow to the Senator's greater expertise in that area.

I have asked for an increase in rent supplement limits but that should be done in conjunction with some reasonable limit being imposed in respect of rent increases. I welcome this afternoon's announcement to the effect that the Minister of State with responsibility for business and employment, Deputy Nash, published the report on the prevalence of zero-hour contracts. The findings of the study, conducted by the University of Limerick, are very interesting. While they establish that there is not an extensive number of zero-hour contracts in Ireland, there is a large number of "if-and-when" contracts in existence here. The idea behind the latter is that, unlike the position with zero-hour contracts, the person is not obliged to make himself or herself available for work. As we all know, however, people on the type of contracts to which I refer do make themselves available for work. The impact on young people, in particular, is well known and has been highlighted by trade unions and NGOs. They have argued that the unpredictability of work, the difficulties in managing work and home life, unstable incomes, difficulties in accessing financial credit, contracts that do not reflect the reality of the number of hours worked, insufficient notice when called to work and so on have a distinct impact on the younger cohort of workers. Given that the report contains a number of interesting and exciting recommendations, I ask that time be made available for a debate on it and - as I have requested previously - on the wider issue of young people. The issue of predictability of work is of major concern to that cohort.

On almost every day on which the Seanad has sat during the past year or so, there have been consistent calls for debates on housing and homelessness. It is more than that - people have been calling for the Government to get its act together, to put in place policies to deal with issues in respect of homelessness and the private rented sector, the supply of housing by the State and the over-reliance on the private rented sector in the context of the vast majority of social housing applicants. As we are all aware, many cannot get landlords to sign up to the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme, the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, or rent supplement and, therefore, they have no options open to them because of the lack of availability of social housing. That is the nature of the crisis. There is also the issue of landlords increasing rents. They are doing so because private sector tenants and social housing tenants are competing with each other to rent their properties. Those social housing tenants are obliged to seek private rented accommodation because that is the only option open to them. That is the problem and we need to deal with it.

Last Thursday, I dealt with a family in Waterford. A woman with three children was turned down even for emergency accommodation - no bed and breakfast or hotel. There was no support whatsoever and she was told to go back and live with her family. That was on the front page of the Waterford News and Star this week, which did a feature on it. Three homeless families were in my office last week. That is the reality in Waterford, but it is also happening in Limerick, Cork, Dublin and elsewhere. It will not get any better until we deal with it.

All we see from the Government parties is dithering, disagreement and rows. However, what is being portrayed in the media may or may not be happening. I do not know the reality of it, but we want Ministers in the House to have a proper discussion with us about solutions on which we can agree. If the Government brings forward solutions to deal with the problem, it will have the support of Sinn Féin. I am sure the Independents and Fianna Fáil will also support the Government in doing the right thing because this is a national emergency. I appeal to the Leader to arrange such a debate. The Government should get its act together and do something immediately because we cannot allow this crisis to continue.