I do not want that comment going out there unchallenged. I have tried to address as many of the issues raised and I have addressed the amendments a second time. That is as much as I can say for the moment.

This amendment proposing an eviction ban relying on Covid-19 legislation is just not credible. That legislation was to deal with a very serious public health emergency created by a contagious disease and where people were restricted in their movement. Whatever about arguing for an eviction ban, using Covid-19 legislation is an egregious approach. As for eviction bans in themselves, the housing crisis, the rental crisis and the homelessness crisis are all part of a supply crisis and unless we drive supply we will no…

I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: acknowledges that: — the new housing plan 'Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030: An Action Plan on Housing Supply and Targeting Homelessness', is focussed on putting in place the conditions to enable delivery of a minimum of 300,000 new homes between 2025 and 2030; — the plan includes a commitment to deliver 72,000 social homes, and provide 90,000 affordable supports, to help people secure a home of their own;…

The Bill will amend the current system of rent control significantly and provide new measures to protect tenants. It will come into effect for new tenancies created on or after 1 March 2026. At the heart of this Bill is the fact we want to provide certainty, clarity and stability for the rental sector and drive new supply of homes to rent. The Bill's new national rent control, which is an unprecedented action, will come into effect on 1 March 2026 immediately following the expiry of rent pressure zones, RPZs. The B…

As we know, we live in a housing crisis. That is a supply crisis. We have a rental crisis which is a supply crisis, and we have a homelessness crisis which is a supply crisis. What we are endeavouring to do here is strengthen tenants' rights, which we are doing through security of tenure, which means tenants will know how long they can stay in a property, while driving investment. I say to Deputy Hearne that investment is not a dirty word. We need private investment.

You stand up here and you are constantly attacking anything to do with investment. You seem to believe that bandying around the words "landlord" or "investment" is enough mud to keep throwing.

Nobody in this House has a monopoly on empathy.

We are trying to solve what is a housing crisis driven by a supply crisis. What have we heard from the Opposition? Have we heard a single solution? The Deputies' only proposal - Deputy Boyd Barrett referred to misery - is to freeze the housing crisis into a permanent misery. That is what they are looking to do.

What they want to do is keep the current situation in perpetuity. What I need to do to solve the housing crisis is not simply about protecting existing renters. It is about all those people at home who need somewhere to live.

That means driving the supply of homes in this country. We have delivered more social homes in 2024 than in any year since the 1970s. We have delivered record affordable homes and last year we delivered over 36,000 new homes, the highest since 2011. We have to drive the supply and that needs investment. The Government is investing the largest amount of money in the history of the State into housing delivery. One in every three euro of the new national development plan capital funding is going into delivering housin…

For those who are currently in a rental situation, their position does not change - for 240,000 renters it does not change.

On the one hand, you want it to stay the same, on the other hand you want change.

In a single sentence earlier, Deputy Hearne said that the landlords are licking their lips, and that they are also getting out. At least when Deputy Ó Broin makes a hypocritical statement he sandwiches it to try to hide it a little bit. You just actually said it in a single sentence. It makes no sense.

It is just word spaghetti in the hope that something lands or when you leave the Chamber you have got 20 seconds for your social media.

What we have to do is provide housing solutions. We have to drive the supply of homes if we are going to solve the housing crisis in this country.

That is what we are doing, while also providing, as I say, for the first time in the history of the State, security of tenure. That is the crucial part we are doing here. Deputies do not have to like everything in the legislation but they are going to vote against security of tenure. That is what they are going to do.

For the first time people will have the confidence of knowing, in the case of large landlords, effectively they can stay there forever. They know they will be able to do it.

There are certain exceptions for smaller landlords but they still know they will have at least six years. We know the greatest driver of homelessness is notices to quit. We are going to give security of tenure-----

-----so people can put down roots, so people can feel safe and know what their personal situation is. I think it is quite cynical actually, the Opposition here. The Deputies are united in cynicism against this legislation. We cannot do nothing. If we do what the Opposition wants to do, which is freeze rents and have an eviction ban, it does not even retain the status quo , it is actually going to get worse because our population is increasing by about 70,000 to 90,000 people a year. If we do not increase supply at …

-----if we freeze the situation as the Opposition wants to do, that is the situation. We are delivering record affordable housing. In 2024 we delivered the largest amount of social housing since the 1970s and we will have the 2025 social housing numbers quite soon as well. That is what we are doing here. We want to solve the housing crisis. That is what we are working towards. I get what the Opposition is doing. It is playing on the fears and emotions of those people who are in a rental situation. We do not have th…