With the greatest of respect, security of tenure is no use if you simply cannot afford the rent. The family homelessness crisis started in 2014, not because landlords were selling but because landlords were hitting tenants with double digit rent increases. Over the space of three to four years, the number of children in homelessness went from 800 to over 3,000. As for the so-called security of tenure measures, the Minister is going to create three different types of security of tenure; for existing tenants in exist…

Cost-rental supply, social supply, affordable purchase supply.

It is not apartments costing €3,000 per month. Get your head out of the sand.

Utter nonsense.

How will apartments for €3,000 per month lower homelessness and lower prices?

Affordable homes are needed and the Minister is not delivering them.

Sit down, you are embarrassing yourself at this stage, really.

Homelessness will increase month on month as a result of these failed policies.

I do not want to hear it, but I would like an answer to the question that you will not answer, repeatedly, over and over.

People can see your housing policy failures writ large.

Homeless figures are out on Friday. Are they going to be down? No, they will not.

I apologise.

I do not like homelessness rising and that is your responsibility.

I do not like rents and house prices rising and that is your responsibility. That is what I do not like, Minister, not your refusal to answer questions.

I apologise.

There was a protest outside today by homeowners affected by defective concrete blocks from Mayo and Donegal, but also from Fingal. The homeowners in Fingal met the Minister's predecessor in 2022 and applied to the Housing Agency in 2023. The Housing Agency's report has been on the Minister's desk since June or July of this year. Can he tell us when he is going to make a decision because these homeowners desperately need some certainty about whether hey are going to be included in what is a very imperfect scheme?

Will the decision be made before or after Christmas?

I thank Deputies Murphy and Coppinger for introducing the Bill and allowing us the opportunity to discuss this very important matter. Sinn Féin is always happy to support any Bill the intention of which is to strengthen the rights and improve the living conditions of people in the private rental sector. While no Bill, especially no Opposition Bill, is perfect or going to solve the problem by itself, allowing Bills such as these to progress to at least Committee Stage allows for further consideration of the matters …

After months of delay, it is finally here. Almost a year into this Government, it is only now publishing its housing plan. Given the amount of time this has taken, we can be forgiven for expecting something bold and new, a plan, as the Tánaiste once said himself, to once and for all tackle the housing crisis. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Anyone who will take the time to read the plan will know the emperor has no clothes. In fact, this is not a new housing plan at all. It is nothing more than a reheating and…

It is not new. It already exists.