Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions Dail Éireann — 2026-05-20 ============================================================ Holly Cairns (SD), Cork South-West The confidence with which the Taoiseach tries to slate the Social Democrats' policies on housing is honestly astounding, when we consider that he is coming in here on a day when there is news that rents have gone up more than they ever have since records began. That is in the context of a housing crisis that has turned into a housing disaster and then into a catastrophe, where there are record levels of homelessness, where rent prices, house prices and homelessness are all going in one direction under this Government. Then the Taoiseach stands up in here and says our plans would do damage. The Taoiseach's response and his rhetoric on housing are now ringing about as hollow as his election promises. Time after time, piece of legislation after piece of legislation, the same thing happens. The Opposition warns him. We tell him this will bring up rent prices. He does this big how dare my doubt my bona fides thing, and then rents go up. Then he comes in here and spouts out these lines about how the Opposition's plans will not work. It is not credible. This Government has no credibility left on housing. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-20/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:47+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-20