Sinn Féin is about exploiting the housing problem and crisis to whatever degree possible for its own political advantage.

The Government wants to increase the supply of houses to get to 50,000 per annum.

The proposals of Sinn Féin, via rent bans or whatever the Deputy has said, would actually reduce supply. The Deputies opposite have no ideas and no solutions. That is their problem and the people saw that last time out. They do not have solutions because they do not accept there is any role for the market at all.

That is a fundamental problem in terms of their presentation on this issue.

I stress again that existing tenants' rent will be capped at 2%-----

-----and the rent of new tenants in new supply will be capped at the CPI level. The caps are retained. The framework-----

I did not interrupt the Deputy but this is standard practice for Sinn Féin-----

-----because Sinn Féin is interested in just throwing untruth after untruth across the House and is not prepared to listen to the truth.

You are not the leader yet, Deputy.

You are not the leader.

The Deputies opposite are into performance; they are not into substance.

There are two things. First, Fianna Fáil has been in government for five years, not ten. That is a fact. Second, Deputy Bacik said people were briefing at the end of February. They were not briefing. What happened was that I went public and said there would be reform and that there would have to be change. I made a general statement saying that we would have to attract private sector investment. All of the Opposition deliberately distorted that and the Deputy declared that it was the end of RPZs, when ending RPZs w…

I did not interrupt the Deputy. He does not own the place. He should have the decency to allow an exchange between me and the Labour Party leader. He has not assumed the status of leader yet and may not for a long time to come.

The fundamental point is that as a result of these packages, we have a national framework of protection. Existing tenants will keep the RPZ at 2%. If we get new builds, which is what we want to do, new tenancies will be capped at the CPI. The protections from no-fault evictions by landlords with four tenancies or more are very significant, and there are other protections and there will be other safeguards. What is emerging is probably the strongest set of rent protection measures we have ever had in the history of …

That is the reality. If we forget all the noise, the sound and fury and go through it detail by detail, this is a well-balanced package. We are talking about all existing tenants staying at 2% as per the existing RPZs, which the Opposition wanted retained. They are being retained for existing tenants. We do need supply.

Surely Deputy Bacik agrees that we need more supply. We need more apartment building and what is needed for that? Certainty. We need policy certainty for renters and investors. That is what this package provides, because we do need private sector investment in apartment building. The final point I would make is that this is but one of a suite of measures that have been taken and are being taken to significantly change the dial in respect of both private sector investment and public sector investment, which we have …

If the Deputy reads the Housing Agency report - and I invite her to do so in its entirety - and looks at the ESRI analysis of the rental market, in reviewing both the domestic and international literature and so on, she will see there has been a negative impact, particularly in 2021, on measures we took on supply into the residential market. That is in the report. There must be a balance. I take it the Deputy wants investment into the private sector. If one does not tie it or give people certainty about the CPI, wh…

-----than had been the case, on top of protections which we brought in over the past number of years. Over the past number of years stronger and stronger protections have been brought in for tenants and renters. That will continue under this measure and will be even stronger again in return-----

Existing tenancies are capped and will remain capped at 2%.

Yes, that is what it says.