What does the party say to those families and those individuals? Those who are saying we did nothing over the period of the moratorium to increase supply are not telling the truth. The facts are the facts. The Government decision of 7 March set out our next steps. The actions we are taking include the significant protections we are putting in place for renters while also ensuring safeguards to keep small landlords in the market.

We are increasing the number of social housing acquisitions to at least 1,500 in 2023. Many Deputies have raised the tenant in situ scheme with me and I assure them that I have corresponded with local authorities. I have issued them each with targets and I have requested that they provide regular progress updates to me.

They are directed to do that. The figure of 1,500 is the floor and we will do more. We are also adding 1,000 new social homes through targeted leasing initiatives in 2023 and 2024, which are specifically focused on our homeless community. This is another initiative that Sinn Féin is opposed to. We have also taken on board pragmatic and solution-driven proposals from colleagues in the Regional Group to amend the Croí Cónaithe vacancy grant to include homes that were built before 2007 and homes that can be rented to …

We have expanded the help-to-buy scheme to €30,000 for first-time buyers and we have introduced emergency powers, as Members will know, to accelerate the delivery of housing, a measure which, unsurprisingly, Sinn Féin did not support at the time we brought it forward. I, like many Deputies across the House, have spoken to tenants over the past two weeks. They ask me what help is available to them and, unlike some of the Deputies opposite, I do not try to scare them by speaking of a tsunami of homelessness or of a d…

This is the same incendiary language Sinn Féin Members used when the eviction ban during the pandemic came to an end. Instead, my Government colleagues and I outline the supports available to them.

I speak to them about HAP, RAS, rent supplement and purchase for tenants in situ . I encourage them to speak to their local authorities about their situation. I inform them of the various schemes-----

-----the Government has in place to help people to buy their own home, all of which Sinn Féin opposed, including the first home and the help-to-buy schemes. It even opposed the vacancy grant. I inform them of cost rental, the new form of tenure in Ireland where tenants-----

-----are in place now paying rents that are not driven by the market or profits.

I tell them we are doing everything we can to ensure that no person ends up homeless.

If there was any doubt that the Deputies opposite are using the current challenges for their own political benefit-----

-----we only need to look at the misinformation they are spinning around the tenant in situ scheme, most notably, Deputy Ó Broin two weeks ago. They continue to cite Dublin City Council only purchasing seven homes under the scheme. They use that figure over and over, despite the council explaining clearly that it is examining a further 382 for purchase right now.

The Deputies know as well that when purchasing a home, the buyer goes through conveyancing-----

-----but they will use the figure of seven and they know it is not true.

They know this-----

-----but they are either confused or happy to mislead, and I believe it is the latter. On the wider picture about supply - and the Deputies did not like this either - in 2022, 30,000 homes were completed, which was up 45.2% on the previous year.

In 2022, we exceeded the Housing for All target by 5,251.

In January of this year, figures indicate the construction of more than 2,100 residential homes. This is the highest number of commencement notices received in the month of January.

There were more than 25,000 first-time buyers and more than 1,200 approvals under the first home scheme.

What will Deputy Ó Broin do?

What will Deputy Ó Broin do? He will say we are spending €4 billion per year on delivering on social and affordable housing-----