There would not be a landlord left under the Deputy's proposals. The Bill is also ill-defined. It refers to nominal medium disposable income. Could the Deputy start to define that?

The Bill is technically illiterate in its propositions. It is also economically illiterate. There is no question that it is unworkable legislation. That does not bother the Deputy. His whole approach, coming from the far left, is destabilisation and keep producing and being popular. We have to work with real life, which is difficult for people. Rent is very high. Supply is key to resolving the matter. We will build a record number of social houses this year.

That is important. We have significantly increased the discretion to local authorities, for example, with regard to the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme. It has increased by over 35%.

It has been introduced. Deputy Ó Broin should stop with the mistruths and misleading.

The work on HAP has been significant in terms of the response of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to the issues that were raised when people sought greater discretion for local authorities to apply to the scheme.

I will always take on board proposals once they are realistic. The Deputy is not tabling a motion on the basis of realism.

He is tabling the Bill on the basis of politics and to be popular. He proved that with his opening line when he asked who is against reducing rent. Nobody is against that.

The Deputy produces legislation, puts it up on the wall and then claims the Government is voting against reducing rents. The Deputy can claim his party is voting for it and they are, therefore, the virtuous ones. That completely ignores the reality on the ground in terms of the non-implementability, to coin a phrase, of the Bill. It is not doable. It is as simple as that. We have rent controls in the rent pressure zones. What is doable is to build the largest ever number of social houses this year, which we will. W…

We cannot eliminate HAP right now because there would be thousands and thousands of people without homes if there was no HAP. It is a substantial rent subsidy to people on low incomes, which is as it should be right now.

That is the reality of where we are right now. We have to deal with that and build more houses. As we build more houses, we can reduce the dependency on HAP. However, we simply have to get far more supply. To be fair-----

Let us be honest. The Deputy's party and others on local councils up and down the country have opposed housing programmes and projects. The Deputy has opposed them because it did not fit his utopian ideal as to what constitutes a housing development.

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. It is fair to say that since he was elected, he has been a very strong advocate for the Defence Forces. He has been advocating on its behalf to many Members in this House, including Members of Government. His advocacy has been consistent and genuine, obviously, given his own experience. I did not realise the vicarious influence, if I may say, of just being here looking after us many years ago had and the clear impact in ending up as a Member of the House thr…

I acknowledge that members of the Defence Forces played a crucial role in our testing, tracing and vaccination programmes. In recognition of their input and unique role during the pandemic, the Government announced that they would benefit from the Covid-19 recognition payment along with other front-line workers. It is disappointing that this payment has not yet been made to members of the Defence Forces. The HSE is managing the payments to all recipients of the payment. Some 90,000 healthcare workers have already r…

Sixty minutes.

First, in terms of the Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2022 and the amendments the Minister is bringing in, we heard during Leader's Questions demands to increase housing supply, reduce the pressure on renters and so on. That is the full purpose of the amendments, essentially, in regard to short-term lettings, which I would have thought many people were calling for in this House. Many people were looking for this and the Minister is now endeavouring to provide for that. They are positive amendment…

I have, indeed, in terms of the short-term lettings. In addition, I would make the point that the Government has made it clear that there will be a very substantial cost-of-living package in tandem with the budget. A lot of work has to go into that and into the budget in terms of getting that right. We have already, last week, introduced measures in terms of increasing the back-to-school allowance by €100. That will take effect in the next week or so. In addition, we are providing extensive meals to children in DEI…

Certainly, there is no grab for power. In response to Deputy Cian O'Callaghan, I would take exception to the assertion that we are somehow resiling from holding An Bord Pleanála to account. The Minister has appointed a senior counsel on that core issue. That is a very serious review. Additional time was sought. It is important when we create a process that it is given time. As the Deputy will be aware, An Bord Pleanála is doing its review. The planning regulator is doing a review as well. There are three.

The back to school allowance being increased is a good thing, as are the expansion of the schools meals programme and the elimination of school transport fees for the coming academic year for primary and second-level schools. Regarding the broader issues mentioned by the Deputy, €2.5 billion has so far been implemented in respect of cost-of-living measures. The forthcoming cost-of-living package at the end of September will deal with the group she referred to. It will have greater breadth altogether in helping them…

The Government is doing everything it possibly can to protect renters. They need to be protected and rent pressure zones are doing that. Some of the measures in the Bill to be taken tomorrow, which people have been objecting to, will also help facilitate the provision of more units for longer-term renters as opposed to short-term lets.

There is another side to the story, which the Deputy did not articulate, in that 43,000 planning permission applications were granted in 2021 and 30,000 new homes had commenced in the year up to May 2022. As I said earlier, Ireland has gone from the third lowest level of completions per capita in 2011 to the fifth highest in 2020. Some 31,000 homes commenced in 2021, but we need to do more. There will be a record number of social houses in 2022 but we need to continue that trend for the next ten years.