I call Deputy Wallace.

You stopped building.

There is only one Deputy Wallace that I am aware of. Excuse me, Minister, would you mind? I have called Deputy Wallace.

Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle.

You should be ashamed of yourselves.

I am sorry. Would you stay quiet and allow Deputy Wallace to put his question?

Last night's horrific programme has once again highlighted the Taoiseach's incredible failure to deal with the housing problem. For him to blame the last Government, after he has been in office for five years, beggars belief. I am shocked that the Taoiseach is so out of touch with what is happening. I can honestly say that of all the things that have happened in the past five years, his failure to deal with the housing crisis has been incredible. It has been an unmitigated disaster all the way through. It has actually got worse instead of better. I have asked the Taoiseach several times why he will not put 10,000 of the 20,000 units that NAMA wants to build into local authority social housing to be run by the local authorities.

The Taoiseach says that everything is about supply. We could have an extra 100,000 houses in Ireland today but if they were not social and affordable houses, we would still have homelessness and we would still have people looking for houses. Of the 20,000 houses that NAMA is going to built, 18,000 are for the private sector, while 2,000 are for the social housing sector. That is a nine to one ratio. The Taoiseach's priority is nine private houses and one social house. I would argue that the biggest problem of all with housing in Ireland today is the lack of safe local authority social housing. However, the Taoiseach is going to let NAMA build nine private houses to one social house. They will be sold for €300,000. Of the people in Ireland today who need to buy or rent a house, how many does the Taoiseach think will be able to afford to pay €300,000 which NAMA thinks will be the selling price?

A question, please.

NAMA admitted that it is obliged to sell on the basis that they are commercial ventures designed to maximise the return to the Irish taxpayer on NAMA's secured assets. This will not deal with the housing crisis, however.

This is Question Time, so will the Deputy please put his question?

Will the Taoiseach change tack and put 10,000 of those units into social housing? It would make an incredible difference. If he were to do so, it would be the most dramatic thing that has been done for the housing problem in Ireland in the past five years.

Quite a number of local authorities actually refused houses that were offered to them by NAMA for whatever reasons.

Do not even go down that road.

I am only making the point. The strategy that is laid out here, with money on the table provided by the Government, is to build 110,000 new social housing units through current and capital funding streams.

They are not social houses.

Would the Deputy please stay quiet?

The programme contains €3 billion. As Deputy Wallace is well aware, local authorities have been instructed to get on with achieving their targets and objectives in order to meet this demand. In 2015, 13,000 social housing units were provided. That was an 86% increase on the 7,000 built back in 2014.

They will not vote Fine Gael anyway.

Will you stay quiet for goodness sake?

The target for this year is 17,000. As I told the Deputy, 2,000 were taken off the housing list last year. Some 6,000 were helped through the housing assistance programme and another 5,800 were helped through the increase in rent supplement under the tenancy agreement. Therefore, local authorities, which used to build lots of houses, have been given clear instructions and money to build social housing for people in every local authority area.

It is not possible, as the Deputy knows as a builder himself, to provide these things overnight and there is a process to be gone through. We have short-circuited that in many respects. The Minister has recently changed the process again to make it easier for local authorities to get on with building housing units where there are fewer than 15 involved. The money is on the table to provide social housing for thousands of people and not have a situation like we saw last night on the television.

Deputy Martin should have a bit of courtesy. He was five minutes over his time. I call Deputy Wallace.

I am always courteous to Deputy Wallace. He tolerates my excesses.

Then just stay quiet and lead your troops by example.

The Taoiseach says that he cannot provide houses overnight and he is right but he could have provided them in five years. He had five years to do it but he has not done so. The Taoiseach is talking about local authorities that did not take up units offered to them by NAMA. Has it dawned on him that those units were the most unsuitable on the island of Ireland?

This is question time. The Deputy should put questions and not make speeches.

The attractive units that should have been going to social housing were sold to US investment funds at half the price it cost to build them. Why did this Government allow NAMA to sell units for half the price it cost to build them? That does not make any sense to me. One may ask how does one know the price of this or that but there is a value on everything.

A question, please.

The value is the cost of putting it there on a given day. NAMA has on a regular basis sold stuff for half the price it cost to build it. US investment funds-----

Will the Deputy put his question? He is over time.

Can the Taoiseach explain why NAMA chose to sell stock of residential units for half what it cost to build them? The Taoiseach said he could not have produced units overnight. He could not have done so but he could have produced them over five years. These were units that were built ready to use. He was able to take Westport House out of NAMA. People were able to buy their way out of Project Eagle. Why did the Taoiseach not take the residential units out of Project Arrow?

Please resume your seat. I call the Taoiseach.

I do not understand why he did not. They were already built and he would not have had to wait for them to be built. Instead they were given away for half what it cost to build them. Will the Taoiseach please explain that to me?

There is no logic to it.

I am not sure if Deputy Wallace has ever engaged with people who are looking for social housing but they want it close to where they are now. I did not comment on the suitability or otherwise of the NAMA offerings that were made to local authorities.

I know from engagement that when people look for a social house, they want it to be close to where they are now, given their family connections or whatever else. The Government set out to address a deplorable situation and the first measure was to reconstruct buildings in which people could not live to make them habitable. Some 2,000 such buildings have now been dealt with.

The second measure was to deal with an emergency where rents were being increased by landlords and people were being forced out. A tenancy arrangement was introduced and is helping 5,800 families. The housing assistance programme, in circumstances where people going back to work were losing all of their benefits, was changed such that it now tapers off. A total of 6,000 families have been involved in it. Some 2,000 families were taken off housing lists last year.

In 2013 there were 89,872 households on the social housing assessment list. The majority, 46,500, were found to be dependent on rent supplement. The results speak for themselves. The list contained more than 2,000 duplicates from one year to the other, and perhaps multiple applications. It is not as easy as the Deputy might think to say to someone living Dublin, Ballinasloe or Athlone, "I have a social house for you, but it is in Drogheda."

The Taoiseach is the only one who is saying that.

The Taoiseach is the only guy who is saying it.

The Taoiseach and NAMA are saying it.

People are entitled-----

I am sorry, Taoiseach, but we are three minutes over time.

People are entitled to look for houses close to them.

Will the Taoiseach please adhere to the Chair's ruling?

Who does the Taoiseach think is saying that? Who is responsible?

Each council has been given its objectives and targets and money. They have been told to get on with building social housing.

It is all their fault. The Taoiseach is in a bunker.

One targets 110,000. NAMA has a different remit.

The Government is falling apart - the last laugh.