2026-05-20

The latest daft.ie rent report was published this morning. The consequences of the Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil rent hike Bill are now laid bare. Rents have hit their highest level in 25 years and are increasing at the fastest rate since records began and evictions are at their highest level since the Famine. This is devastating for renters. The rent rule changes announced by the Government last summer and introduced on 1 March are a disaster. What these massive rent hikes mean in real terms is that in Dublin, renting a two-bed apartment will cost you an eye-watering €30,000 per year. In Galway city, where rents have shot up by 18%, a two-bed will set you back €27,000 in rent per year. Is it any wonder that there is so much anger and despair among young families in Galway - people who are desperately trying to put an affordable roof over their heads? Who in God's name can afford these rents? Can ordinary workers, families or young people afford them? They do not have a hope. They do not stand a chance. How does the Government expect people to live? How does it expect young people to save for their own home? The Government has knowingly caused this nightmare with its rent hike bill. The daft.ie report calls it out in black and white. It states that "the ability to reset rents between tenancies appears to have led to a step-change in rents, with the largest quarterly increase in rents on record." This report includes only the first month of the Government's disastrous legislation, so renters will now be terrified that there is much worse to come. I warned the Taoiseach that the Government's Bill would open the floodgates to massive rent increases but he refused to listen. In fact, he told me that I was wrong. The biggest corporate landlord in the country also told the Government. They boasted brazenly to investors that the Government's legislation allowed them to jack up their rents by extortionate amounts but the Government pushed ahead, intent on lining the pockets of the corporate landlords, big developers and vulture funds and utterly indifferent to the consequences for renters, families and ordinary people. Today, however, the Taoiseach has nowhere to hide. We now see the consequences of his actions as plain as day, with record rents, record evictions, families with nowhere to go, young people forced to choose between paying crippling rent, moving back in with their families or emigrating, and stress, worry and panic. That is what the Government has done to an entire generation and it has done it deliberately, with its eyes wide open. Tubaiste amach is amach is ea an Bille sin a bhfuil de thoradh air go bhfuil níos mó daoine á gcur amach as a dtithe agus cíosanna níos airde ná mar a bhí riamh. Thréig an Rialtas tionóntaí chun pócaí na dtiarnaí talún móire agus na gcreach-chistí a líonadh. The Government has chosen to back big landlords and punish renters. It could have cut rents, banned rent increases and put a stop to no-fault evictions, but no. With its rent hike Bill, it chose to make life better for the corporate landlords and property funds, so they laugh all their way to the bank, while the lives of families, workers, students and young people are turned upside down. What has the Taoiseach to say today to those renters who were thrown to the wolves?

Hear, hear.

Rents have been too high for a long time. Why?

Because of your Bill.

It is because there is a shortage of supply.

Allow the Taoiseach to answer.

The Deputies have had their chance. With respect, they should allow democracy to take place.

The Taoiseach had his chance.

Manners, please. The Deputy's leader will respond.

The one thing I observed in the presentation by Deputy McDonald was the absence of any solution, the absence of any idea except to ban rent hikes-----

Get rid of this Government

-----which will destroy supply. Any international organisation analysing the rental market or any property market has said time and again that rent controls or the freezing of rents just reduces supply, kills the market for the long term and will keep prices at too high a level. The Housing Commission recommended that we had to change the rental situation in terms of the rent pressure zones.

It did not recommend that.

Again, Sinn Féin Members are interrupting and again they do not have either the manners or the cop-on to listen to some rational arguments on this question.

At least I do not misrepresent the Housing Commission's report, as the Taoiseach has done.

With the greatest of respect, Deputy, you went off to Davy Stockbrokers. You went off to all that gang before the election and we saw the incoherence of your response.

Be honest about the commission's report.

I am not going to ask again. Respect the discourse of the House, on both sides.

Again, recommendations for reform came from the Housing Commission, the ESRI, and the Housing Agency.

Not for this reform.

The bottom line was this. What was in place could not be sustained. Equally, it is about supply-----

Can we sustain the current evictions and homelessness figures?

In terms of our proposals and what is happening, we had 36,000 additional houses last year. Supply ultimately will moderate rent increases.

When?

Deputy Ó Broin, your party leader asked the question. You are not special.

Will it be in three years, four years or six years?

Deputy Ó Broin, do you have a special dispensation that I am unaware of? Please allow the answer to the question your Leader has asked.

Daft.ie data is asking prices. It is not the complete data set for the entire rental market in the country. Deputies should know that. That is the bottom line. The asking prices are usually greater than usual. The Central Statistics Office, in its monthly change analysis, showed a figure of 0.3% in quarter 1 of 2026. The Residential Tenancies Board covers the entire population of tenancies, which is about 246,000. With daft.ie, it could be as low as 2,300 tenancies. We have to treat the daft.ie data with care in terms of any proper, comprehensive analysis of the rental market. The latest RTB data shows continued growth in quarter 1 of 2026, with 246,000 tenancies. That is the highest on record. There are more tenancies and properties available.

No, there are not. That is not true.

The Deputy's party leader will respond.

There is no doubt that, with the change, there was going to be an impact on the market. There was no question about that. It was actually said at the time by various agencies. The bottom line is that there had to be certainty given to the landscape because we are spending about €9 billion of State money. The direct State intervention in the housing market is around €9 billion. The Central Bank says we need about €20 billion. We need a combination of public sector and private sector investment in housing. That means a long-term certainty in terms of the rental market. I looked at all the Opposition parties' proposals before the election and all their manifestos. They are very poor in terms of analysis.

They are very poor.

There is not much point in this.

They are shocking.

Allow the answer.

The Taoiseach says that with a straight face.

All Sinn Féin offered the last time was a house without the land. Actually, Deputies may feign a laugh-----

-----but I would challenge anybody-----

We have rising rents, rising house prices and rising homelessness.

It is now up to Deputy McDonald to respond. Deputies have been very disruptive.

What has been unacceptable is that there has been a deliberate attempt to interrupt and heckle.

What is unacceptable is 7,000 children in emergency accommodation.

I did not interrupt Deputy McDonald.

It is deliberate but it has been handled. The Taoiseach's time is up. I ask Deputy McDonald to respond.

We have record rents and record house prices.

Will Deputy Ó Broin allow his leader to respond, unless it has changed?

The Taoiseach has nowhere to hide today because the consequences of his actions are very clear. The Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil rent hike Bill has meant the highest rent hikes on record and evictions at the highest levels since the Famine. The Government has chosen deliberately to side with corporate landlords and vulture funds. Those are the Taoiseach's choices. It takes a very particular type of slíbhín to stand-----

A Cheann Comhairle-----

That is out of order.

-----in this House and suggest that it is okay for families to face a rent bill of €30,000 a year in Dublin and €27,000 in Galway.

Deputy McDonald.

It is a very special kind of slíbhín politics from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Shame on you.

Deputy McDonald, your time is now up but I ask you, on behalf of the House, to withdraw the name you have just used.

It is true.

Will you withdraw that remark?

A slíbhín is a slíbhín.

You will not. That is fine.

A rose by any other name and a slíbhín by any other name. Shame on you, Taoiseach.

I have asked. Deputy McDonald, your time is up. Now you are taking advantage. Resume your seat.

That is your record, Taoiseach. Do not dare lecture the rest of us on the Opposition benches.

Hear, hear.

The Taoiseach to respond, please.

He has no response.

With the greatest respect, it is just plain stupid to go on about the greatest evictions since the Famine. That is not being serious about our housing problems.

It is statistically correct. It is a fact.

We have a housing crisis here but all I see from the Opposition-----

Allow the answer.

All I see from the Opposition, Sinn Féin in particular, is empty rhetoric, no solutions and the usual sloganeering. That will not build houses. I have a document here with all the objections of those parties' representatives. They objected to housing project after housing project.

As a party, it is not-----

I understand this is about politics and electoral politics. What I am determined to do-----

This is about homelessness. This is about renters.

Deputy Ó Broin.

No, it is not.

This is about an entire generation locked out because of your policies.

I suggest we move on.

Deputy Ó Broin is empty in terms of policy formulation.

It is about the 7,000 children you made homeless.

You are empty on substance, Deputy Ó Broin. You have no substance when it comes to housing.

Thank you. This is absolute, total and utter disrespect.

You have no substance whatsoever and the proof of the pudding was in the last election when people did not buy your pig in a poke. You got it wrong and your party knows you got it wrong.

That is it. I call Deputy Ivana Bacik.

It is an absolute disgrace.

Before the Deputy starts, it is incomprehensible that, as either side of the House is incapable of respecting one another's time-----

That is not true, a Cheann Comhairle.

I said "one another's" in terms of respectful discourse. I am asking for co-operation to get through the business of the day. I call Deputy Ivana Bacik.

Hear, hear.

Yesterday, I raised the plight of renters with the Taoiseach in this Chamber. I hate to say I told you so, but today's daft.ie report confirms the recent record surge in rents and a particularly sharp rise in Galway, proving again just how badly the Government is failing renters. Today, I wish to raise a different matter with the Taoiseach, a serious matter, namely, the epidemic of violence against women in our country. Yesterday, former garda Paul Moody was sentenced to prison for a terrible prolonged campaign of coercive control against his partner. He has already served a three-year sentence for coercive control in respect of another woman, Nicola Hanney. It is four months since I raised with the Taoiseach the treatment of former garda Margaret Loftus and praised her courage in telling her story of coercive control. Yet, as reported in last week's Irish Examiner, her former husband remains a member of the Garda. In Paul Moody's case, we read of serious failures by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, to take effective action when alerted to his conduct. Yesterday, the CEO of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Rachel Morrogh, stated that record numbers had contacted its helpline last year. At almost 24,000, it was the highest ever. There were over 7,000 first-time contacts. Garda figures show that more than 1,000 domestic abuse reports are being made a week and official statistics represent only a fraction of the true number. Nearly 40% of victims surveyed by the Garda Síochána Inspectorate said they did not report the abuse they suffered and approximately half who did report abuse said they were dissatisfied with how they were treated. This should stop us in our tracks. Far too many women and children across Ireland are experiencing home as not a place of safety, but a place of danger. We have made progress on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in recent years - legislating for the offence of coercive control, Coco's Law, the O'Malley report, and the establishment of Cuan and protective services units in Garda divisions - but we must do more. I have a constructive policy call for the Taoiseach today. Front-line organisations, such as Women's Aid, tell us that financial insecurity and the housing crisis are trapping women and children in violent homes. Many victims simply cannot afford to leave and their abusers know this. That is why the Labour Party and Labour Women are proposing a €3 million safe fund for victim survivors of domestic abuse. This is a practical measure to provide fast financial support for those who desperately need an escape route. It would not be means tested and would provide help when needed, recognising that victims often have only a small window of opportunity to escape. Freedom from violence should not be a luxury and nobody should have to remain in danger because they cannot afford to leave, just as no victim should lose faith in the justice system because their cries for help are dismissed or delayed. Will the Taoiseach commit to establishing a safe fund to help victims of domestic abuse? What will he do to ensure abusers are not accommodated within the ranks of An Garda Síochána and to see that complaints of abuse are taken seriously by Fiosrú?

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an gceist phráinneach seo a ardú. Aontaím léi go bhfuil an méid foréigean i gcoinne ban sa tír seo uafásach. I thank the Deputy for raising this extremely important issue. What we witnessed yesterday in terms of the revelations in the court case involving Paul Moody was quite shocking and horrendous and the level of abuse evident in that case made for extremely difficult hearing and reading. Equally shocking are the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre's reports on the use of its national helpline. It was contacted 24,000 times, a 5.5% increase on the previous year, and its annual report outlines unprecedented levels of demand. As the Deputy, in fairness, acknowledged, over the past three or four years, there has been a sea-change in how the Government has approached this issue in terms of the establishment of Cuan, for which funding now is approximately €80 million, sustaining support for front-line services and accelerating delivery of safe accommodation, with a commitment to provide 280 safe spaces by the end of 2026. Legislatively, the Minister is continuing to introduce various legislation, for example, Jennie's law for a domestic violence register; Valerie's law for the removal of guardianship rights of those convicted of killing partners; and laws to restrict the disclosure of counselling notes in sexual assault court cases. The Minister is pushing the outer limits of legislation to give protection to women and to deal with this. That is real, tangible progress across funding, legislation, prevention and victim support, but we will continue to strengthen those supports for victims and survivors. The domestic violence travel supplement will, I understand, be introduced by the Minister for Social Protection this month, providing free travel when referred by a Cuan-registered agency. I will ask both Ministers to work with the Deputy in terms of any additional funding or ring-fencing funding for any specific purposes. We are open to any constructive proposals on that. We have modernised the legal framework to better protect victims. The engagement of the Family Courts Act 2024, the Criminal Justice Act 2020-----

I thank the Taoiseach. He will come back in. I call Deputy Bacik.

These have all been significant, and then there is the implementation of the O'Malley report-----

The time is up.

-----on the journey of the victims.

I thank the Taoiseach for his response and his commitment to strengthening supports further. The reality is the institutions of the State, in too many ways, are still not supporting victims of abuse. I will give two examples. First, hours were spent at the justice committee yesterday debating laws on the disclosure of counselling notes in rape trials when we all know that simply should not happen. Deputy Kelly has been working with the Minister and putting amendments on that, and indeed working with the Rape Crisis Ireland on it. Second, perpetrators of domestic violence in far too many cases are using the courts by way of abusing victims further. Last week, I attended the launch of the Right to Transparency campaign at which we heard harrowing testimonies from women and their families who have been through the family court system. One grandfather described how his daughter had fled an abusive relationship barefoot in her pyjamas with a broken jaw. Her abuser received a sentence, but a suspended one, in the criminal courts. His daughter was imprisoned because her traumatised child had refused overnight access visits. That is just one example. The in camera rule is an important facet of family law proceedings but we need to acknowledge reform of family court procedures is needed-----

I thank the Deputy and call the Taoiseach to respond.

-----to support victims and survivors. We are very happy to work with the Government on this.

That reform is under way and is continuing. We have been fairly open to any constructive amendments in respect of the various legislative mechanisms that have been introduced. The Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026 will restrict the disclosure of counselling records in sexual offence trials and criminalise the exploitative practice of sex in lieu of rent. The criminal justice Bill of this year will set up a domestic violence register of judgments, which will ensure that convictions for serious domestic violence offences are made public as part of the conviction process. Each Garda division now has a protective services unit focused on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. Early intervention is key. There is a broader issue of education and awareness and there are some good programmes, with the GAA and Ruhama, for example, in respect of aspects of this. Operation Encompass, which is a police-led, school-based early intervention approach designed to support children and young people who experience domestic abuse, is in development for Drogheda, County Louth.

I thank the Taoiseach and call Deputy Cairns.

On all fronts-----

The time is up.

-----we are going to proceed with this agenda.

Today we got news that we all knew was coming. The Government's new rent rules have already driven rents to a record high. They are rising at the highest rate in a quarter of a century. Year on year, rents are up 7% in Dublin, 13% in Cork and a whopping 18% in Galway. We told the Taoiseach this would happen and these measures would undermine renters and he said it was "a ridiculous assertion". Now it is renters who are paying the price. Lauren Keena worked hard, sat her leaving certificate in 2025 and got her dream course in Galway. Because she knew she could not afford to live in the city, she put her life on hold for a year and worked full time to save up. I spoke to Lauren yesterday after seeing a video she posted online in tears at the heart-breaking struggle to find a place to live in Galway. She has tried everything - hundreds of emails, viewing after viewing, applying on rent.ie, daft.ie and through agencies, private student accommodation, digs and every avenue possible, but has found nothing. After nearly a year on a waiting list for private student accommodation, she was finally offered a studio, but the condition was €12,000 upfront for nine months, with no monthly instalments allowed. How is anyone supposed to afford that, let alone somebody fresh out of secondary school? Lauren said something else which stuck with me. She said she feels embarrassed. No young person should feel embarrassed to be in this situation. The Government should be embarrassed for failing them. Right now, this feels like a country with no vision for young people, no place for them and no future they can afford. What are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to work harder and save more? They are already doing that but it is not working because the housing system is fundamentally broken. We have all been knocking on doors in Galway, so I am sure the Taoiseach has seen the same thing I have. Everywhere you look, there are lock-boxes hanging from houses turned into short-term lets, houses that could be homes for students, workers or young families. Instead they are Airbnbs going for extortionate rates while young people like Lauren are left crying into their phones, wondering what they are supposed to do. At what point is the Taoiseach going to admit that Ireland is becoming a country that young people simply cannot afford to live in? Will he now admit that his rent rules have been a disaster?

First of all, again, rents have been too high for far too long. Any economist will say there is only one way to deal with this and it is supply. We need more supply and we need it more rapidly. The Government is taking decisions that will ensure over time we get more supply. It is going to take time and that was said at the time.

When?

With respect, I did not interrupt.

Do not interrupt again, Deputy Hearne.

I have not interrupted anybody here. I am going to make this point, and it is a fair point. I have looked at the Deputy's proposals. There is nothing in her proposals that would increase supply over the next three years anything over and above what the Government is doing. In fact, it would be less. I have looked at her State construction company idea. It would be three or four years down the line before anything would come out of that. We already have a Land Development Agency, which has 14,000 in the pipeline. It is time people got real here. It is all very well doing the sloganeering. We all know the crisis out there in housing. The Government is taking decisions in respect of it that have substance behind them. We need to get to 50,000 per annum. I have seen nothing from anywhere across the House outlining how people propose to get there in terms of alternative proposals to what the Government is proposing. We have activated the local authorities, approved housing bodies, the Land Development Agency and, yes, the private sector. The Deputy is totally opposed to the private sector having any role in housing. That is her party's position.

That is totally untrue.

Are you not happy with your leader posing the question?

False.

That is the Deputy's party's position. You have said it a lot of times, Deputy Hearne. You have been saying it.

Excuse me. The rules are the rules. This is Leaders' Questions. If you are not happy with the leader you have asking the question, maybe you would consider changing that but respect the answer to the question that has been asked.

We are not happy with that leader.

You cannot say mistruths.

We will continue now.

The RTB data shows we have about 246,000 tenancies, the highest on record. In terms of daft.ie data, it indicates asking prices but it is not comprehensive. The RTB does a more comprehensive dataset in terms of the entirety of the market. One has to take these figures with some degree of care, as the author himself acknowledges that the report has to be examined with care. That has to be said. The bottom line here is we want rents to moderate. We want to get them down.

When?

The bottom line is what was happening over the past four to five years prior to the change was not sustainable. The Deputy knows that. The Housing Commission said it was not sustainable. The ESRI said it was not sustainable. Everybody accepted it was not sustainable.

How is €3,500 a month sustainable?

Deputy, I am not going to ask again.

Therefore certainty had to be given to the market, and also additional protections. In terms of existing tenancies, they have not been impacted in any shape or form by this to the same extent. Again-----

Ask the I-RES REIT tenants.

Deputy, I am not going to tell you again.

No, they have not been impacted and the Deputy knows that too but that will not get said. We are talking in terms of the newer tenancies here. We need more supply.

They have been evicted in record numbers.

Deputy Hearne, you are free to leave if you cannot comply with the rules.

Sin an rud is tábhachtaí. Caithfimid i bhfad níos mó tithe a chur ar fáil chomh tapaigh agus is féidir linn agus sin atá faoi chaibidil ag an Rialtas.

The confidence with which the Taoiseach tries to slate the Social Democrats' policies on housing is honestly astounding, when we consider that he is coming in here on a day when there is news that rents have gone up more than they ever have since records began. That is in the context of a housing crisis that has turned into a housing disaster and then into a catastrophe, where there are record levels of homelessness, where rent prices, house prices and homelessness are all going in one direction under this Government. Then the Taoiseach stands up in here and says our plans would do damage. The Taoiseach's response and his rhetoric on housing are now ringing about as hollow as his election promises. Time after time, piece of legislation after piece of legislation, the same thing happens. The Opposition warns him. We tell him this will bring up rent prices. He does this big how dare my doubt my bona fides thing, and then rents go up. Then he comes in here and spouts out these lines about how the Opposition's plans will not work. It is not credible. This Government has no credibility left on housing.

I do not think the Social Democrats' proposals are credible. They are so sparse. They are so lacking in detail. They are not fleshed out. I genuinely do not think the Social Democrats' policies on housing are credible. They talk about a savings and investment scheme.

It has worked in France for a hundred years.

It would take years to implement. They know that.

If the Government had started a year and a half ago-----

The issue here is not funding. The State has put up €9 billion.

How long has the Government been standing over housing policy? It will be a decade of the housing needs review.

The Deputy knows. Let us talk about the savings and investment scheme that they put forward. How would that bring rents down next year? How would it bring rents down the year after? It would not add one additional supply of housing-----

Of course it would.

----until about four or five years' time, even if they got the additional funding. That is the point I am making. Their housing construction company is so poorly fleshed out-----

Why did the Government not do it four or five years ago? Better late than never. It is not too late.

I do not mind having a debate about housing. Let us debate it.

Deputies, if you do not listen to the answer-----

The Government made decisions for the institutional investor funds.

No, we absolutely did not. We did not.

Yes, it has. That is why it increased the rents. It absolutely is.

Taoiseach, excuse me. This is not a back and forth. I suggest Deputy Hearne go away and learn the rules of the House. The Standing Order for Leaders' Questions is a back and forth between the leaders. Do you have a difficulty with that? At any stage, if you cannot comply with the rules or the Chair's direction, you are free to leave, as is any Member. We have a lot of business to do today and I intend to get on with it. Do you wish to finish, Taoiseach?

Just to make the point about research from the RTB. If you compare like with like and apples with apples in respect of the other data reviews that have taken place, it is a far different story in terms of the impact on existing tenancies in particular.

Time is up, thank you. Deputy Tóibín is next.

The average rent of a two-bedroom flat is now €2,176 a month. That is the highest on record. It is equal to €26,000 a year. Incredibly, a PAYE worker has to earn €32,000 just to be able to pay for that rent currently. The average rent in Dublin city is now heading towards €3,000 a month. That is eye-watering. It is incredible that now Dublin is the highest in the whole of the EU for one- and two-bedroom apartments. Rent in Dublin is now for the rich. The number of evictions increased by 50% in the first three months last year. The Government's policies have led to 7,062 evictions in just one quarter. It is incredible. The equivalent to the population of a full Irish town was evicted just in the first quarter of this year. It has enormous human consequences. Ciaran and Jessie Redmond are from County Wicklow. They worked all their lives. Their daughter has now got leukaemia. Ciaran has had to leave his job to look after his daughter and help in her treatment. Jessie works and the family income is just above the threshold for supports. They are now facing eviction and going into emergency accommodation because of the Government's policies. I have listened to the Taoiseach. His Government has been in power in one form or another for the past ten years. In that time, rents have increased by 80%. Rents have increased in 13 of the past 14 years. Each year, we hear him declare that we have turned a corner and each year those rents keep coming up. It is not by accident. We in Aontú warned that his policies would actively push up rents but he knew this. This was actually meant to happen. The Taoiseach admitted it in his answer to the Social Democrats that this is actually a market activation tool. The Taoiseach believes that if rents go up, viability will increase, more builders will come into the market and house supply will increase. The Government could have achieved that viability without hitting hard-pressed renters. It could have cut VAT on house building. It could have cut connection fees on house building. VAT and connection fees work up about €50,000 in each housing unit. That would have reduced the price on families and increased viability, bringing more builders into the market and increasing supply. Viability is not the only problem in this. Planning and infrastructure are so dysfunctional that even if we get more builders in, it is not going to make a difference. Uisce Éireann said to us in the committee that it will take until 2050 before all the gaps in the water infrastructure, which are blocking the building of homes, will be filled. Planning, permitting, licensing, procurement, tendering and judicial reviews, all the tools the Government has in the sector, are all glacial in this country. Will the Government reverse this rent policy? Will it reform the dysfunction in planning and infrastructure? Will it ease the tax pressure on the building of new homes?

The budget has eased the tax pressure in terms of apartments-----

Just apartments.

Do not dare.

-----through the reduction of VAT to 9%. That was a significant measure, which was attacked by large elements of the Opposition at the time. We put huge equity into EirGrid and we have put substantial equity into Irish Water, all designed to accelerate infrastructural development. We did that at the very beginning of the Government through the national development plan and through budget allocations. The investment in water is significant. We have also put significant investment into the Land Development Agency, which has up to €10 billion in available capital for the construction and development of housing. We use every lever and mechanism we can use to get more supply, and it is about more supply. We brought in a rental tax credit to try to ease the pressure on renters because rents are too high and we acknowledge that. The only way to deal with it is to get more houses built and to get more apartments built. We have worked on all aspects of this, from the Critical Infrastructure Bill going through the House now, through the housing activation office, which has been allocated €1 billion to deal with housing enabling infrastructure on the ground to remove barriers and delays to housing, and through the reform of the rental market which simply had to happen and was advised by all concerned. Anybody who examined the market in detail, from the ESRI to the Housing Commission, all said this could not be sustained the way we had it and that we had to change it and create certainty for the long term. It will take time for some of that to yield. The State has already put €9 billion into housing this year alone, which is huge. If we want to get to 50,000 or 60,000 units per annum we need an investment of about €20 billion. This is the challenge facing the country.

Planning and procurement.

We have resourced An Coimisiún Pleanála quite substantially and the feedback now is that far more timely decisions are being taken by An Coimisiún Pleanála in respect of planning permissions. There is a much more positive feel about the changes we brought about some years ago to An Coimisiún Pleanála. The Planning and Development Act is having an impact. Reform to judicial review will also have an impact. This is a multifaceted approach to housing. We are focusing on it and prioritising it. We are not interested in slogans or cheap politics. We are interested in a proper analysis of the housing market and what it will take to get a volume of supply into the future. Yes, infrastructure is a key part of this and water infrastructure in particular. We will continue to work with Irish Water in respect of wastewater treatment plants in smaller developments. There has been some progress on this in terms of nature-based solutions throughout the country, which have approval and which will enable smaller projects in towns and villages to get off the ground.

There is another aspect to this debate that is completely missing from the Chamber and that is the issue of demand. Leaving certificate economics will tell us demand is also a large aspect of this crisis. The population of the country has increased by 382,000 in the past five years. This is the same as the population of Galway, Mayo and Leitrim. These counties have seven hospitals, three universities, 400 schools and 170,000 homes. The Government is simply not building this level of infrastructure at the moment. One of the most basic rules of economics is that if demand increases without increasing supply, rents and house prices will rise and availability will reduce. There is a lot of talk in the Chamber about sustainability. It is unsustainable to allow demand for housing to exceed supply every year and that is what is happening. Will the Government reduce tax on homes and increase connections? Will it reform the planning system? Will it invest properly in infrastructure? Will it decrease the number of people coming to Ireland during this crisis?

There is no doubt that population growth is a factor. It went up 8.5% between 2020 and 2025. If we go back to 1995, the population has increased by 52%. There are positives in this because we had been declining up to the 1960s and 1970s as a population down to 3 million. I am not clear on what the Deputy is suggesting. It is not easy to unwind that. There is no question a significant proportion of it is migration into the country. If we look at our health sector and the analysis by CSO recently in terms of employment growth-----

It is a minority of people coming in the health sector.

Deputy, do not.

I am interested in the Deputy's debate. I am trying to have a sensible debate about it and not one that gets me attacked because we are having the debate. Please allow me to respond. The bottom line is our health and care sectors are significantly dependent on migration. Look at the financial sector and the technology sector.

The time is up now Taoiseach.

We cannot unwind an economy simply by saying no one else is allowed in.

Thank you, Taoiseach. That concludes Leaders' Questions.

The Taoiseach admits it is a factor.

Of course it is a factor. There is no question it is a factor.

Then it has to be dealt with

That concludes Leaders' Questions and the Taoiseach's time is up as well. I have two welcomes with regard to the Gallery. Deputy Richard O'Donoghue would like to welcome a ladies group from Bulgaden, County Limerick who are in the Gallery. We also have group called It Takes A Village from Greystones, which has campaigned on social media protections for children, and includes children from St. Patrick's national school. They are all very welcome and I hope they are enjoying the robustness of politics.