In the final quarter of last year, approximately 6,000 new social homes were delivered, including almost 5,000 new-build social houses.

At the same time, more than 1,500 local authority homes were refurbished under the voids programme and restored to use. Just prior to and during the period of the moratorium, local authorities opened some 500 additional homeless emergency beds and 170 cold-winter beds. Some 734 adults and 346 families exited homelessness in quarter 4 of 2022. In the last three months of 2022, during the eviction moratorium, 1,896 new HAP tenancies were created. All these new social homes were delivered despite the many knock-on imp…

Supply is at the heart of this. Sinn Féin knows this but does not like this statistic either, that 30,000 new homes were completed in 2022, which is a 45% increase on the previous year. Some 25,000 first-time buyers purchased homes last year, which is the highest number on record.

First home approvals-----

As I was saying, more than 1,300 were approved under the first home scheme, which many renters avail of and which Sinn Féin also opposed. The help-to-buy scheme continues to assist thousands of homebuyers with their deposits, more than 37,000 so far. Again, Sinn Féin opposed that. Almost 1,300 applications to bring vacant properties back into use have been received. Sinn Féin also opposed the Croí Cónaithe grants of up to €50,000. Cost-rental is now a reality and 1,000 cost-rental homes have been approved for fundi…

-----were registered during the months of January and February. During that time, 1,000 new approved housing body tenancies were registered with the RTB. These are solid secure tenancies into the future. It is simply not true that in cases where tenancies end, tenants will end up homeless. Be assured that by providing help from the State, purchase with tenants in situ, dealing with the transboundary issues we have dealt with, and by providing clear directions to the local authorities we will do absolutely everythin…

That is what is there. Throughout the course of the debate on the eviction moratorium, protections that exist for renters have been lost and I will take a minute to outline them. We have a €500 tax credit that is worth €1000 in 2023. There is a 2% rent increase cap in rent pressure zones, RPZs. Rents outside RPZs can only be increased every two years. There is an increase in the notice-of-termination periods that are up to 224 days for certain tenancies, which is more than seven months. More than 75,000 HAP and RAS…

-----and reduce the properties that are available. The only policy Sinn Féin has brought forward in respect of individual mom and pop landlords supposedly to retain them is to tax them an additional €400 per year via a second-home tax.

That is a fact.

It is Sinn Féin short-termism versus the Government taking a responsible decision. We have seen a decrease in social housing waiting lists over that period of time. We will not be dissuaded or put away from the course we have-----

-----under Housing for All to deliver more social homes than we have done in generations-----

-----and we will continue to do that. Sinn Féin is acutely aware the measures it would ask other Deputies to pass this evening would make a very difficult situation a lot worse-----

Sinn Féin just completely disregards that. Be honest with people.

There will not be from this side.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. A number of people have raised the matter of phased zoning, where the zoning will take place after another development is done. We are looking at that specific issue. The residential zoned land tax, as the Deputy rightly said, is about activation and making sure people are not sitting on land that could be developed and ensuring it is developed. In those instances, we are looking at a solution where the land's zoning is predicated on other lands being developed before it. …

The Deputy may not have heard the Taoiseach's response earlier. All local authorities have been given the full financial resources to expand their emergency accommodation provision, including in the Deputy's area. The tenant in situ scheme, which is being accelerated and expanded, applies to the Deputy's area too. We are also bringing in the cost-rental scheme for those tenants whose income is above the social housing limits. This is a matter I have discussed with the Deputy on a number of occasions and, in fairnes…

There are a number of measures we are bringing forward. We are also increasing the housing supply right across the country. We built more social homes last year than in any year since 1975. We have affordable homes for the first time in a generation both to purchase and to rent. We will continue to improve on that this year.

I move amendment No. 5: To delete all words after "That Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "notes that: — the Government agreed on 7th March that the 'winter emergency period' under the Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Act 2022 would come to an end on 31st March, 2023, with deferred tenancy terminations taking effect over a staggered period from 1st April to 18th June, 2023 as planned and legislated for under that Act; — the Government has used the past several mo…

This Government has been honest with people. We introduced the winter moratorium to mitigate pressures people faced over the winter period. We did so in the face of a cost-of-living crisis. We said at the time that we would use the period of the moratorium to ramp up supply. For the information of the Deputies opposite, I will briefly outline the facts of what we did during the period of the moratorium. In the last quarter of 2022, almost 6,000 new social homes were delivered, including almost 5,000 new build socia…

Data from the RTB shows that 19,049 new tenancies were registered in January and February of this year. In the last three months of 2022 during the winter eviction moratorium, 1,896 HAP tenancies were created. On this point, I want to highlight that the State created on average 630 HAP tenancies during each month last year. That is a direct support for our most vulnerable renters. Almost 60,000 active HAP tenancies are being supported under the scheme, yet, in one fell swoop, Sinn Féin, the main Opposition party, s…