Seamus McGrath

And that is something the opposition are failing to accept.

They never refer to landlords.

They never refer to the importance of having landlords in the market and trying to encourage and sustain landlords in the market.

We have increased the overall number of landlords in the market, and that's welcome.

But the opposition focus on one side of the argument all the time, and they never address the root causes.

Let's bring Seamus back in there.

The report highlights that we have 2,500 properties available, which is chronically short of where we need to be.

And what you're saying here this morning is we're going to somehow increase the availability of properties by imposing an eviction ban and a rent freeze on landlords.

Can you please explain that?

Because that is not something that stacks up.

If the solution to this is supply, the short-term measures you are talking about will be detrimental over the medium-longer term, and it will actually...

impact on renters and tenants far more over the longer term because it will reduce the availability even further.

When a temporary eviction ban was imposed during the COVID period, there was a spike in evictions when that was lifted afterwards.

So I really would like you to explain how that is going to solve the problem.

Are you ignoring the fact that there were 9,000 social houses built last year?

So what we are seeing is a dramatic scaling up of social housing delivery.

That is a fact.

9,000 last year and we want to be even more ambitious this year.

Under the government's housing plan, we are determined to deliver 72,000 social houses over the lifetime of the plan.

We are also determined to increase our affordable purchase properties and our cost rental properties.