If the Government had started a year and a half ago-----

Of course it would.

The Government made decisions for the institutional investor funds.

Yes, it has. That is why it increased the rents. It absolutely is.

I take note of the Ceann Comhairle's earlier comment, and I thank her. I am back to the rents. Who can afford these outrageous rents? Does the Taoiseach know how much of a nurse's take-home pay is needed to pay the average Dublin rent of €2,600 per month? It is every last cent of it. This is the most cruel and callous Government since the foundation of this State. The Government parties knew their new rental measures would cause even higher rents and evictions, but they did it anyway. We have the highest rate of ev…

Where are these people to go?

That is ridiculous.

That is ridiculous.

You are putting words in my mouth.

That is not true.

That is your view.

It is your view.

People being evicted onto the street is not "churn".

Where is the occupied territories Bill?

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. I completely support what is set out in it. It is deeply frustrating and disappointing to engage in this debate again and see the absolute lack of concern on the Government's part. I will come back to this. I remember, when I was engaged in campaigning against the lifting of the eviction ban after Covid, describing the Government at the time as being one of the cruellest Governments we have had since the foundation of the State. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael today hav…

I am.

What is unbelievable is 7,000 households being evicted in the first quarter of this year and not an eyelid batted or an intervention made on the part of the Government. I have looked at it historically. The figures are there. A total of 100,000 households were evicted between 1846 and 1852. This equates to between 15,000 to 16,000 households a year. How many households were evicted last year? The answer is 20,000 households. Not only are we at the highest rate of evictions since the Famine, we have surpassed it. Th…

I said earlier that this Government is the cruellest since the foundation of the State. The Minister waffles on about homelessness prevention but he will not do the one thing that could actually prevent people being made homeless, which is to put in place a ban on evictions. He has become and will be known as the Minister for evictions. We have record evictions and record homelessness, and the Minister will not do the thing that he can do to prevent families and children being made homeless, which is to put in plac…

I absolutely stand over the comparison with the Famine. What the Minister is doing is refusing to acknowledge the trauma that is caused to every household that is evicted. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have stood over, year after year, evictions and homelessness rising. Deputy Browne is just another Minister who is standing over record homelessness and evictions. He said that I have no solutions. I set out my solution very clearly for him, namely a ban on no-fault evictions applying to existing tenants. The Minister is…

The Minister is spinning mistruths that he has put in place the biggest protections for tenants-----