In the past two years the attention of those of us on the Opposition benches has been focused on housing, rightly so. Notwithstanding the new Government, Taoiseach and Minister and the various new plans, the housing crisis has worsened. To any reasonable observer, it has become an emergency, with people dying on the streets and the number of homeless children increasing by 30% since this time last year. Declaring a housing emergency is a prerequisite to dealing with the housing crisis in a sustainable manner and allowing the Government to pursue alternative solutions. While the private market will have a role to play in providing these solutions, public construction of housing, the provision of affordable houses, shared ownership schemes, regulated rented markets and a much greater role for co-operatives will be vital in providing alternative solutions once the Government sees its way to declaring a housing emergency.

Tragically, none of this is happening. The Government's failure to learn from its mistakes and its reliance on the private market to provide housing, albeit with the full support of taxpayers' money, is worsening the crisis. I will focus on Galway as an example of what this reliance on the free market has allowed to happen. The beautiful city of Galway has a population of 80,000 and a housing waiting list of approximately 13,000 people dating back to 2001. Lands in the inner city, at Ceannt Station where 14 acres of land is available and in the inner docklands area where more than 2 ha. is available, have been earmarked as key regenerative areas, but there is no master plan, area action plan or overall vision. We are back to developer-led development. Development in Galway, where land has been zoned and public land is available at Ceannt Station and the docks, is developer-led on the sites that have been sold. Moreover, the authorities are in the process of selling public land at the Ceannt Station site. There is no master plan or local area plan in a city with a development plan that demands and sets out objectives for such plans and refers to sustainable development, mixed communities and the development of communities in the city. A regional plan was also drawn up further to a discussion document that referred to moving away from developer-led development and learning lessons. No lessons have been learned. Not one house has been constructed with public funds in Galway since 2009.

At this point, all I can do in the three minutes available to me is to draw the Tánaiste's attention to the crisis, ask him to use whatever legal power is available to him to intervene in Galway and listen to the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government which, in its previous guise as the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, set out that, at a minimum, a local area action plan should be developed prior to any strategic zone being adopted for the lands in question.

While the Deputy and I often disagree, I agree with virtually everything she said. We need to ensure we rebuild a housing sector that can provide social and affordable private housing in a more effective and planned manner and do not leave this task to the vagaries of the market. This applies to Galway and many other towns and cities. It is for this reason that the Government will introduce a new national planning framework in the next few weeks. The purpose of the framework is to plan for 20 years ahead and for an additional 1 million people and to ensure cities such as Galway, Cork, Waterford and Limerick will plan in a sustainable way to accommodate the needs of people who need homes and housing.

While it is true that there is a reliance on the private sector to provide social housing solutions in the absence of publicly owned and built social housing, the Government is changing this position rapidly and dramatically increasing the number of social houses being provided by local authorities and approved housing bodies. Private sector delivery of the homes people need is also being ramped up. The figures for last year bear this out. Just 18 months into the five-year Rebuilding Ireland plan, it is clear from the figures that the plan is working. Last year more than 17,500 new homes commenced construction last year, an increase of 33% on the figure for the previous year, and more than 19,000 homes were connected to the ESB network, meaning that they were either newly built or had not been occupied for the previous two years. In addition, planning permission was granted for more than 18,000 new homes. This figure does not include planning applications made under the new fast-track planning system for large developments. The number of new households that had their housing needs met reached 25,892 last year in terms of social housing demand. These figures are significantly higher than those for 2016, 2015 and 2014.

It will take time to solve the problem. Those who call for instant solutions and the construction of tens of thousands of social houses within six or eight months are not being realistic.

Fine Gael has been in government for seven years.

The plan we started with 18 months ago is now delivering increases in the numbers of social and private homes, as well as homes that are affordable to first-time buyers.

I accept that there are particular problems in Galway. The figures available to me show that 100 houses were bought, newly built or brought back into use for social housing last year and that there are a further 350 social housing units in the pipeline. I can provide Deputy Catherine Connolly with exact details on their locations, although I am aware she is very familiar with the city.

The number of homeless persons in Galway stands at 199, which does not include those staying in refuges, sleeping on couches in other people's homes and so forth. Let me deal with facts. I am a pragmatic and realistic woman and asking the Government to take action immediately, not to build houses tomorrow. I also ask it to take action in respect of the developer-led development of sites in Galway city that will result in 2,600 jobs for office workers in a multi-storey complex and not one single home. I ask it to take action on the absence of a local area plan and a master plan for brownfield sites in the city that are being sold, principally at Ceannt Station and in the docks. I ask it to take action to deal with flagrant non-compliance with the city development plan, the Government's national planning framework, with which I am familiar, and all of the national planning guidelines. We have a housing crisis, but we also have public land in the hands of various public agencies. When office accommodation and not one home is to be built for 2,600 people, not only do we have a scandal on our hands, but it is also clear that we have not learned anything from this debacle. I again ask the Tánaiste to listen on the issues I raise and act on them. I am not asking that houses be constructed tomorrow but that the Government ask serious questions about why there is no interconnecting plan for lands that would solve or partly solve the housing crisis in Galway in the next few years through the building of homes.

I am slow to offer too much commentary on my previous brief because the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, is now responsible for this matter.

Anyway, I spent time with senior management in Galway City Council and Galway County Council - I imagine the Minister, Deputy Murphy, has too - as well as both together to talk about how we face the challenges that Deputy Connolly has outlined relating to the dramatic housing shortage for student accommodation and social and affordable housing. Those conversations are continuing. There is ongoing dialogue between the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and local government in Galway to ensure plans are being addressed. One of the reasons we asked local authorities to produce an audit of all available land for housing and commercial development was for that very reason.

We have to try to ensure that we develop mixed developments and that we do not use every portion of land we have for housing if, in some circumstances, it is unsuitable. We must ensure that we build communities and that we will have sustainable societies in future that can address housing need as well as employment need and so on. It is about balancing these competing interests and getting it right. That is what the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government should be doing. My understanding is that is exactly what departmental officials are doing together in the context of Galway.