This is an important day. There is no point in saying it is not. The other House of this Parliament is having a debate about one of the key issues that affects society, namely, rent certainty and how we will move forward. The Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney, has introduced a brave proposal and moved where many people would not go. I object to being lectured from the other side of the House about planning and how we failed to plan for the housing crisis. We were not the people in charge when the banking crisis collapsed the nation. The people who are sitting on the other side of the House must take responsibility for the car crash state in which they left the country. Now we are trying to put the wheels back on and move the country forward. We are trying to get the construction industry, the banking sector and the entire country moving again. The construction industry needs to provide 20,000 units and we are only providing a fraction of that number. We must realise where we are. Rent certainty is a key issue, not only in Dublin. Problems are not always just Dublin-based. The issue affects Cork also. We must not forget other areas. The Minister has said he is starting with these two cities, but he will look at areas outside of them in January. He has said he will focus on local authority wards because these areas are smaller demographic areas. He has thought through the legislation very well, but it is now up to all the parties - the Labour Party, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin - to put politics behind them and deliver something for the people. I have no problem being here up to Christmas Day if we need to be to do that, but we should not say the legislation is rushed. We will give it as much time as is wanted because the legislation is needed and must be delivered.

It is unfortunate that the Government is not able to proceed with the business in question of rent caps. I am a pragmatist and believe progress will be made on the issue before the day is over. Sinn Féin and the Labour Party are gas.

Gas. We would not have a homeless problem if we had our own gas and oil resources.

It is very low to go into political things-----

The Senator should proceed on the Order of Business.

-----but when Fianna Fáil was able to work with the Government to provide stability for the country, according to Sinn Féin, we were in bed with it and when we do not agree with it on an important issue, Sinn Féin states we cannot get our act together. What does it want? Sinn Féin reminds me of the punter at the racetrack whose horse is an also-ran and his or her only hope is the ones in front will all fall.

It is a howl. Sinn Féin has some excuse because it has no experience of being in government - down here anyway.

Not yet.

Down here. It is all the one island.

However, the Labour Party has been in and out so often, it would, as Seán Lemass said, go with anyone. It is like Mother Machree's dog - it would go a bit of the road with anyone.

We normally have to go in to fix Fianna Fáil's mess.

It cannot resist the siren call of the State cars.

The Senator is meandering through the Order of Business.

Given the season that is in it, I wish the Cathaoirleach, everyone in the House, our staff, the staff of the Cathaoirleach's office and the Seanad Office, all of the ushers and everyone else a very happy Christmas. I hope we will have many more of them here.

I call Senator Paul Gavan.

Now we will have gas.

If I came into the House demanding a 12% pay hike for public sector workers-----

We would all support the Senator.

I thank the Senator. Were I to go further and say that if they do not get the money, they will walk away from their work forever, I would be laughed out of it, rightly so, yet here we are with Fine Gael demanding just that - a 12% pay hike for landlords. However, that is the minimum. There is plenty of room for greater increases if one is living in Limerick, Galway or Waterford. That is considered to be not just acceptable but absolutely necessary. Otherwise, apparently, landlords will walk away from the market and, worse than that, take the houses with them. We do not know where they will hide them, but the Fine Gael mantra is that we will never see them again and no one will ever be able to live in them again. I know that it is Christmas and fairy tale time, but it is a bit rich to be going down that road, particularly when we have 174,000 landlords, or 2,000 more than we had at the beginning of the year. I would love to hear from my colleagues in Limerick. My heart goes out to them because it appears that Limerick people are not good enough for any kind of rent protection. Dublin and Cork people perhaps, but Limerick people? God no. There was a 15.9% increase in rents this year in Limerick, but we cannot have anything that might upset the landlords in Limerick or Galway, which is bizarre.

The key point is that Sinn Féin gave this House three opportunities to legislate for rent certainty, the first one being in June this year. To be frank with Fianna Fáil, the difference between what we were arguing for - a rate of inflation increase - and a 2% increase is virtually nothing. I really do not understand why Fianna Fáil did not agree with us at the time. Fianna Fáil is now complaining about Fine Gael, but when it had the opportunity to do something about rent certainty, it, unfortunately, blew it. It is a little late to come into the Chamber now to complain about this legislation. This is a theatre of the absurd. It is Fianna Fáil pretending to be different from Fine Gael. It is a bizarre spectacle. We are here to legislate-----

Sinn Féin did a good job at the theatre.

-----yet it is clear that no legislation is forthcoming today because of this spectacle of the absurd between the two conservative parties in the Chamber. Like my colleague, Senator Ned O'Sullivan, although I will be here on Tuesday, I wish all Senators a happy Christmas.