Build affordable housing. You are the one who is doing the false choice. Hypocrisy.

To increase rents.

The Minister has not answered the question about whether rents are going to come down.

When will rents come down?

I do not have policies. The Minister is the one who is in government.

I do not have the means to implement policies. When are the rents going to come down?

Ah, stop.

Rather than answer the question of when rents will go up, how much they will go up by, when they are going to fall and giving any sort of sense of what will happen, the Minister just comes back with "supply, supply, supply". Supply is the answer to the housing crisis, but it is not the only answer. Housing systems across the world also have things such as rent controls, protection from evictions and measures for security of tenure, which the Minister himself claims this Bill is about. It is not all just about suppl…

The Minister has still not answered a fundamental question that we asked. Based on the introduction of the Bill, when will rents stabilise? When will rents start reducing as a result of the Bill? The Minister has not answered the question and it runs against all policy, which is supposed to be evidence-based policy, that he understands the consequences and impacts of a Bill but has not set out the core purpose, which is going to have significant social impact by resulting in rising rents. He accepts this but he wil…

I support the amendments, particularly the introduction of a no-fault eviction ban for all tenancies, and that no eviction could take place where there is an identified risk of homelessness to the tenant. This exists in countries like Belgium, for example, where people cannot be evicted when they have nowhere else to go. It is still shocking to me that we have the highest level of eviction since the Famine, yet the Government acts as if it is normal and acceptable. It is absolutely unacceptable to us that we are he…

It is deeply disappointing that the Minister of State is rejecting these amendments. I also cannot wrap my head around the fact that the Minister, Deputy Browne, said he does not tolerate or accept one child being homeless. Right now, the Minister of State could prevent thousands of children becoming homeless in the coming months by agreeing to this amendment but he is not doing it. He shakes his head, but of course he could. The Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, referred to the emergency situation during Covid. T…

The housing crisis in the Gaeltacht is having a specific damaging effect on these communities and our language. Tá an ghéarchéim tithíochta na ceantair Ghaeltachta ag cur todhchaí na Gaeilge mar theanga bheo i mbaol. It is putting our language in danger. Young people are being forced to leave. Will the Minister set out how he is using his powers as the Minister responsible for the Gaeltacht under section 9 to help Údarás na Gaeltachta to deliver homes and ensure the future of our language and our Gaeltachtaí?

I thank the Minister for his response. I welcome the engagement on housing. While housing comes under a different Department, we cannot separate the future of the Irish language from the housing crisis in Gaeltacht areas. As the Minister knows, there is a particular emergency there. This morning, there were ten properties to rent in Connemara on daft.ie , while Airbnb had 573. Young people are being forced out of Gaeltacht communities. It was reported by the One Million Homes project this morning that 12,000 homes …

I appreciate the Minister's focus on this issue. It is wonderful to see. I am one of the people coming back to the language agus ag foghlaim an teanga arís. Within that, people need to understand that while there is this great revival, the places where the language is alive, where we think of it as having its origins and being capable of being sustained, are, in fact, in serious danger. I have spoken to young people who are being forced to leave those areas. This is a particular emergency in Gaeltachtaí. I urge the…

Finglas is a strong, proud community. However, it faces challenges and some very high levels of disadvantage from a long-standing lack of public investment in communities. It is a community devastated by recent tragedy, so it is deeply disappointing that a vital counselling service for young people in Finglas, the Hear Me Out youth mental health service run by the Finglas Youth Resource Centre, is facing a lack of funding. The service has provided support for hundreds of young people in relation to various issues s…

The housing crisis is an absolute social catastrophe. I was contacted yesterday by a woman who is a civil servant, who is in her 50s and who has been evicted from her home into homelessness. What is the Government going to do about homelessness? In particular, what is it going to do about the delivery of social and affordable housing? Today the Social Democrats launched a detailed proposal for a State construction company. It is costed. We need a game changer. We need the public sector to deliver affordable housing…

I am not quite sure whether the Minister genuinely believes what he is setting out and has been saying in public. Let us explain honestly what the Minister is doing. With regard to the claim that renters will get certainty from this Bill, the truth, no matter what way he tries to spin it, is that the only certainty it gives existing renters, the 250,000 households renting right now, is that their current tenancies will continue into the future with the same threat of eviction as exists today. They get no new securi…

Stop.

Why did you get rid of annual targets?

We do not know your targets.