I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

Today, the Central Statistics Office, CSO, published its latest property price index. I am sure the Tánaiste has seen the headlines. House prices have risen yet again quite significantly, but one of the interesting details in the CSO report is that the price of apartments has skyrocketed. The price of apartments in January was up 9% State-wide on the same period last year. Excluding Dublin, they were up an astonishing 12%. What that means, of course, is that for the people who invariably end up renting many of thos…

On Friday, the Minister's Department published the latest homelessness figures. They show record highs of homelessness, with more than 17,000 people, including more than 5,000 children, homeless. Since Deputy Browne has been Minister, homelessness has increased by 12% and child homelessness has increased by a significant 16%. Will the Minister set out what additional actions he intends to take to reduce the flow of adults and children into homelessness and get people into emergency accommodation more quickly?

The Minister's party and Fine Gael have effectively been in government together since 2016 and since then the total number of adults who have been forced into emergency accommodation because of their failed housing policies numbers 55,000. I ask the Minister to think about that for a moment. That is more than a capacity crowd at the Aviva Stadium. It is greater than the population of Longford or, indeed, of Drogheda. Rather than this being the Government's priority, the policies it is implementing are making this c…

Yet the numbers of adults, children, families, singles and pensioners continues to rise almost every single month. By pushing up market rents, this is going to get worse. When we published our analysis based on RTB data of the cost of the market rent reset, the Minister rubbished it. He said it was not true. Yet, we already have evidence. A few days after the introduction of the new change, a tenant renting a one-bedroom apartment in Leopardstown moved out. The apartment was being rented for just over €2,000 until …

The Minister has not in his own constituency.

The Minister missed his target again. What was the target? He missed the target.

The Minister has been in government for a decade.

The Minister missed his targets. He should be honest.

I do not think I shouted.

I politely interjected. The Minister's target was 10,000 and he missed it.

Fianna Fáil slashed capital funding for social housing.

The price of cost-rental accommodation is far too high. There is a growing number of working people, singles and couples, who earn too much to access social housing but because of the application of the affordability rule, they are not able to access cost rental. Can the Minister confirm that he shares my concern with respect to this matter and set out what he is going to do to assist the Land Development Agency, LDA, and approved housing bodies to bring down the cost of cost rental so it is affordable for all thos…

Earlier this week the Minister visited Oscar Traynor Road, where there are two- and three- bedroom cost-rental units. The two-bedroom units cost almost €1,600 per month and the three-bedroom units cost almost €1,800 per month. That means people need a net income of €54,000 to be able to access the two-bedroom units and €64,000 for the three-bedroom units. This tells us that a huge group of people who are not eligible for social housing, but whose incomes are below those levels, are locked out. Approximately 26% of …

The Minister's response is genuinely remarkable. He does not even accept there is a problem despite the fact that the data from the AHBs and the LDA confirms it. What is worse, LDA tenants are effectively paying corporation tax as part of the rent. That amounts to 15% of the rent they pay. Although the LDA has been given an exemption from corporation tax for new developments, that will not be passed on as an affordability measure, as per the Government. Worse, the LDA has just hit almost 500 of its tenants with ren…

With 21 seconds left, the Minister cannot accept there is an affordability problem.

That is utterly shocking.

Hear, hear.

As the Minister knows, some of the worst quality rental accommodation in the State is the inner-city flat complexes owned by Dublin City Council built in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. There is widespread damp, sewage problems, overcrowding and decades of poor maintenance. While Dublin City Council has a comprehensive and ambitious plan to address those issues, the Department continues to put far too many barriers in its way. Will the Minister provide an update on funding applications and approvals specifically for th…

The Minister is developing a terrible habit of spending most of his time talking about everything other than the actual question, which relates to the currently tenanted flat complexes, such as Oliver Bond House, St. Michan's House and Pearse House, where the Department is preventing, blocking and delaying the approval of funding. Initially it was because the national planning framework required that density be increased, and following the intervention of Dublin City Council and many of us on this side of the House…