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?

Sentiment score: -0.13

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.

Sentiment score: -0.09

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

Sentiment score: 0.00

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

Sentiment score: 0.15