Cuirim céad míle fáilte roimh na cuairteoirí. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to watch Leaders' Questions on television and I listened intently, as I always do, to what the Taoiseach had to say in response to Deputy Mary Lou McDonald's propositions for the resolution of some of the dreadful difficulties around housing provision. The Taoiseach's answer was not even in response to her questions or to the important issues she raised.

As with his Ard-Fheis speech and other recent remarks, the Taoiseach was talking only to the Fine Gael base and that other section of the electorate that he hopes to win over in the next election. He may say that is an entirely appropriate thing for him to do and if being here is all about getting into or staying in power, that is fair enough. However, it should be a question of how he uses that power and whose interests he serves. If it is a case of governing fairly, building a decent society and guaranteeing people's rights, that is a different story entirely. That should be more important than the Taoiseach's efforts to reposition Fine Gael for the next election.

I acknowledge that the Taoiseach has just said the Government inherited problems created by Fianna Fáil and others but when Fine Gael took over from Fianna Fáil it followed its policies to the letter and managed collectively to destroy the largest Fine Gael mandate in the history of the State, as well as the Labour Party. That is because people elected Fine Gael to do something different from Fianna Fáil and because most people are decent they punished it. Now Deputy Varadkar is Taoiseach, irony of ironies, by virtue of Fianna Fáil support.

All the problems remain and it seems to me that the Taoiseach's narrative is to minimise the scale of these problems to serve his electoral ambitions. It does not seem to matter how this affects those whose lives are miserable because of the Government's bad policies. A very obvious example is how it has dealt with homelessness. The solution is simple: it is for the State to build more homes and to make housing affordable. The levels of family, child and adult homelessness are the highest ever recorded in this State. The Taoiseach's public relations narrative has been picked up by others, including officials whose responsibility it is to solve these problems. The same is true of crèches and health services, the North, rural Ireland and Brexit. I appeal to the Taoiseach not to dismiss my comments in his usual glib way. I ask him to reflect on what I am saying and to consider that his approach will divide our society and fracture it even further. That in time will be desperately bad for everyone, except the Taoiseach's peer group, even if he succeeds in getting back into government in the next election. Surely the Taoiseach is obliged to do more than that. Surely his focus should be on those whose very lives depend on good government.

I thank Deputy Adams. I am glad he was able to join us today. I understand from his Twitter account that he took yesterday off to prepare his Ard-Fheis speech and I can see he is already practicing it here today.

The Taoiseach did not practice his.

He did not need to.

He is a natural.

Deputy Adams took most of last week off to travel to the United States to raise funds from very wealthy Americans, which is something we will come back to at another stage.

The Deputy's contention is, of course, incorrect. All of the problems that we inherited from Fianna Fáil do not still remain. Unemployment, for example, is down from 15% to 6% and falling. The public finances are now in a much more stable position and our national sovereignty is restored. There are of course new and other problems, such as Brexit, which the Deputy mentioned, and of course the housing crisis. We will deal with these problems as soon as we can and will put the maximum effort behind all of those. I can guarantee we are doing exactly that.

As I mentioned already in my response to Deputy Martin, we are absolutely committed to increasing the provision of social housing in this State. Some 2,000 new homes will be built directly by local authorities and approved housing bodies this year, rising to just under 4,000 next year. We have invested in the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, providing funds to local authorities to provide services to land, roads, utilities and so on, to enable those lands be released for housing and affordable housing. We have increased the vacant site levy to punish land hoarders, so that land is brought into use. In the Finance Bill 2017, yesterday, we brought in an examination of whether we should tax vacant homes. It is difficult to know whether we can do that because the numbers for vacant homes are unreliable. We have changed the planning regulations to fast-track planning making it much easier for builders to go for bigger developments and as well as that there are the building regulations which are being changed to reduce the cost of building housing. Across Government there is an enormous commitment to getting to grips with the housing crisis.

There is also a factual realisation and understanding that this is not a problem that will be solved easily or overnight. From a point where almost no houses were built in the country for a number of years, we have got to a point where thousands rather than hundreds are being constructed. Next year, there will be tens of thousands. Against a backdrop of a rising population and increasing household formation, however, it will take time for us to get on top of the problem. This does not in any way diminish our determination to do so.

The big difference between Sinn Féin and the Taoiseach's party is that we believe people have rights. When I have asked the Taoiseach about this matter in the past, he has said people do not have the right to get things for free. That is a line out of the rule book of right-wing ideology according to Margaret Thatcher. The Taoiseach is familiar with Sam, who lives in Louth and who is 18 years old. Sam has severe autism and complex needs and his behaviour is challenging. His mother is battling for him to receive access to respite care. His family is exhausted, stressed and worried about his future care. Sam's mother has met Ministers and the HSE. She also met the Taoiseach. I have raised Sam's lack of access to any kind of respite services with the Taoiseach previously. However, Sam is still invisible to the Government. Sam has rights and needs. He is a citizen. Will the Taoiseach not become a Taoiseach for all of the Sams in our society and for all of their sister citizens? Instead of being a Taoiseach for the elites, will he not become a Taoiseach for the homeless?

It is my role - and very much my role - to be Taoiseach for everyone in the country and that is exactly the way I intend to govern. This includes increasing funding and facilities for people with disabilities and we have done this. There was a €90 million increase in funding for disability last year and there is a further €75 million to come this year. For the first time ever in the history of the State, there are medical cards - by right - for all children with severe disabilities regardless of their parents' income. This is our record. We have had the first increases in eight or nine years in the disability allowance two years in a row. These are the facts. What we get from Deputy Adams is rhetoric. We are just getting a preview of his Ard-Fheis speech. The strategy of Sinn Féin is very obvious. Its aim is to exploit human suffering-----

That is a disgrace.

-----and exploit this content-----

The Taoiseach does not even know that there is homelessness.

He does not even know what suffering is.

The Taoiseach is entitled to respond.

-----and to try to use that for political gain. Instead of putting forward solutions, what it does is exploit human misery and our country's problems in an attempt to gain votes.

The Government has caused human misery. It is disgraceful.

That is not the type of politics this House will ever see from my party or those on this side of the House.