I invite the Minister to come back in here and prove that we were wrong and that he was right. If the Minister has the courage of his convictions and if he had a credible analysis of the Bill, which he does not, he would agree to that without doubt. We cannot even get the Minister into a television studio to debate with us on any of these matters, so I doubt that he would be willing to give the time for a debate here. As the month-on-month and quarter-on-quarter figures come in, we are going to see the consequences…

Eoghan Murphy made all the same promises. It is almost like Groundhog Day. What happened? Homelessness, rents and house prices rose, and the right kind of supply never materialised. The Minister's party colleague Darragh O'Brien probably made more promises than anybody else. It was a case of "Darragh gets it done", as Oliver Callan used to say in his sketches. What happened? The Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, might tell us what happened while Darragh O'Brien was Minister.

I will tell him what happened. Homelessness rose. I know it is funny. I know the Minister of State thinks it is hilarious. As a consequence of the policies of the Minister of State's party, real people ended up in emergency accommodation who should never have ended up there. That is the consequences of what you guys do, and you are doing it again. You are doing it in a far more serious manner than you have done in a decade. That is why none of us on this side of the House will make any apologies for highlighting th…

The reason this is more like a Second Stage debate is because the Government forced us to have the Committee and Remaining Stages on the floor on the Dáil instead of us having Committee Stage as normal in a committee room where we would have had a completely different type of engagement as we always do. That was an imposition by the Government. We all wanted and argued at the Business Committee that the Committee Stage should be taken in the normal manner. For the Minister, after the Government deliberately decided…

Except for breach of contract.

Except for breach of contract.

It is just a clarification, I am not heckling. Except for breach of contract.

Surely breach of contract is also-----

The rip-off rent hike Bill before us today is without doubt the most profound change to the regulation of the private rental sector in over a decade. Much more significant than that, at the core of this Bill, is nothing short of a vicious financial assault on private renters who are already living in the most expensive and insecure form of housing in the State. The consequence of this legislation over a relatively short period of time will be significantly increased financial hardship for renters; more and more peo…

I am thankful for the opportunity to speak on this important issue. There is a certain degree of scepticism in my attitude to the Government's new-found interest in critical infrastructure. I have been a Deputy for a decade. I am one of a number of people on this side of the House who have been talking about lack of investment, lack of reform and lack of ambition regarding critical infrastructure and delivery of key projects involving housing, renewable energy and public transport. Despite the fact we have many tim…

We understand that on Tuesday the Minister intends to bring his rip-off rent hike Bill to Cabinet for approval, a Bill that will sound the death knell effectively, over time, of rent pressure zones, RPZs. This is going to result in ever greater numbers of renters having their rent reset to the market rate. Will the Minister confirm to the House that the overwhelming majority of renters, over a period of four years, will effectively lose the meagre rent pressure zone protections as a consequence of his actions?

The average length of a tenancy in the private rental sector is three and a half years and 25% of all tenancy registrations in a year are first-time tenancies. Students, particularly those in purpose-built student accommodation, typically rent year to year. The direct consequence of the legislation the Minister is going to bring to Cabinet on Tuesday is that from 1 March, ever greater numbers of renters will see already-unaffordable rents rise even higher. That is what he is doing. For some, it will be at the begin…

The only certainty the Government is going create with this legislation is that hard-pressed renters who are paying rip-off rents are going to have to pay even more. That is the only certainty. There is an alternative. We have set it out over and over again, which is to temporarily ban rent increases, put money back into renters' pockets and deliver the kind of supply that renters need.

Increase investment in social homes and increase investment in genuinely affordable homes. Increase support for the SME builder-developer sector to build homes for working people to buy. The Minister will not do any of those things. Instead, at the behest of the large corporate institutional investors, he is allowing for a market reset and that will do one thing and one thing only. It will mean a small increase in high-density, high-end, high-price private rental, which is not a solution to the crisis. We have set …

I repeat them every week.

You are misleading the House and your party lied during the election. Those are the facts.

It is a matter of public record. Fianna Fáil, Deputies Darragh O'Brien, Micheál Martin and Simon Harris. and Paschal Donohoe lied about housing completions during the election.

We have the evidence. It has been proved.

I shall respect the Chair.

The truth is the truth.