Last year the Minister of State, Deputy John Cummins, was clear. Modular units in people's back gardens would not be available for rent on the private market. He said: "I don't see this as a rental measure. I see it as facilitating intergenerational movement." There was broad agreement across the Opposition. These units could help families and they should but opening them up to the private rental market was always going to lead to exploitation. We can already see exactly where that road leads. On Clare Street in Dublin, up to 22 people are crammed into one house, paying up to €890 for a bed. That is in a room with three or four other people, with the landlord raking in almost €20,000 a month. This is not a functional housing system. This is a return to tenement conditions which were rampant in the worst years of this State. It should not be tolerated but this Government seems to think differently. Today, the Taoiseach is calling it practical and pragmatic to charge market rents for cabins in back gardens. Let us be clear about what that means. It means charging €2,000 to €3,000 a month for a shed in someone's garden with no tenancy rights because they would be rented out using licensing agreements. The same loophole is already being used in Clare Street right now. These renters have no security of tenure, no statutory notice periods, no rent controls and no access to the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB. Renters are being thrown to the wolves and this Government is telling them they should be happy about it. It is outrageous. I know so many young people across the country are angry today but more than that, they are exhausted. They look at this Government and what it is doing and they just despair. Taoiseach, would you blame them? What exactly is the Taoiseach's vision for young people in this country? Is it for them to be ripped off by landlords, to scrimp and save to live in garden sheds, to be denied their tenancy rights? Unfortunately, that is the legacy the Taoiseach is leaving. For anyone watching today, I want to be clear. There are solutions to the housing crisis, such as establishing a State construction company, modular home factories to dramatically increase the supply of affordable homes, a new State savings scheme to raise billions to fund them, and a ban on no-fault evictions to protect renters instead of treating them like second-class citizens. These are all political choices the Government could make but refuses to. How can the Taoiseach justify renters being charged extortionate rents to live in back gardens with no tenancy rights?

Sentiment score: -0.04

When the Taoiseach comes in here week after week and gives this profoundly positive spin about housing, I have to wonder if he even feels convinced by his own words. We do not just have record rents and record house prices; we have record homelessness. We are talking about more than 17,000 homeless people, including more than 5,500 children, and the Taoiseach comes in here and gives this unbelievably positive message. He then says that this Government is not out of touch. It is difficult to even respond to but ultimately, it is evasion, deflection and a way of avoiding the question so I will just ask him again. Does he accept that people renting these cabins, these sheds in people's gardens, will not have any protection or any renters' rights? Is he okay with that? If not, what is he going to do about it?

Sentiment score: 0.17