I commend the speedy response and bravery of the men and women of the Dublin Fire Brigade in dealing with last night's hotel fire in Ballymun. It is thanks to them, the Garda and other emergency and council staff, as well as the staff of the hotel and the adjoining building, that there were neither injuries nor fatalities. They deserve all of our thanks.

This day two months ago, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, announced his affordable homes initiative. Describing the measures as initiatives was a bit of a stretch. They were more like threadbare promises. He re-announced the €25 million fund for local authorities to deliver affordable homes but there were no details, no timelines and certainly no targets. He re-announced the long-promised but not yet delivered cost rental project. Again, there were no details, no timelines and certainly no targets. The only concrete proposal was for a revised local authority first-time buyer's loan scheme. Clearly, the Minister was under pressure. He needed to give the impression that he was doing something. That was because on Fine Gael's watch, the affordable housing crisis has spiralled out of control.

Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of individuals and couples are unable to access affordable homes to rent or to buy. The Government's housing plan has no targets for the delivery of affordable homes. The Minister, possibly with the overpriced advice of the strategic communications unit, cobbled together the so-called initiative to make it look like he had a plan. In response to the revised council loan scheme, Sinn Féin raised the following concerns. It did not address the core problem, namely, the undersupply of affordable housing. It risked burdening modest-income families with unsustainable loans to purchase overpriced houses. It breached the Central Bank's mortgage lending rules. While the scheme will help some families and the fixed-interest rate is attractive, it demonstrates the Government has not yet grasped the scale, or indeed the source, of the affordable housing crisis.

When I made these points at the time, the Minister dismissed my concerns. However, this morning, RTÉ reporter, Louise Byrne, revealed on "Morning Ireland" that the Department of Finance shared exactly the same concerns. In a written response to the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the Department of Finance said the rationale for the measure was unclear, it involved significant risk of exposure to the State and would do nothing to increase housing supply at a time when supply not demand was the problem. Despite this, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, ignored these concerns. The information obtained by RTÉ also revealed that, even though its concerns were not met, the Department of Finance withdrew its objections, leading to speculation that the final decision was a political one, made in full knowledge of the shortcomings and problems with the scheme.

Will the Tánaiste tell the House why the Government ignored the opinion of the Department of Finance? Will he tell us why Rebuilding Ireland contains no targets for affordable rental or purchase homes? Will he confirm that not a single affordable home will be delivered this year by any central government scheme?

As usual, the Deputy sees conspiracies around every corner.

It is hard not to when the Tánaiste is in charge.

The Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme was a measure which was discussed between the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and the Department of Finance, as any scheme would be when significant moneys are involved. In this case it was a €200 million fund and, of course, there was back and forth, questioning its merits. The truth is that at the end of that discussion, the two Departments agreed to move forward with it. That is what the record shows. Is anybody who has been in government surprised by the fact that initially the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform would raise robust questions to test the merits of this approach? There is always a robust exchange when the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government goes to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform with a new idea and asks it what it thinks. At the end of that, there is an agreement on a way forward which is what happened in this case.

It is a success story so far. It has been only launched several months and we get weekly reports about the level of interest in it. Last week, there were 323 calls, of which 319 were answered. There is a significant interest as one would expect in Dublin. Up to 26% of the calls received were from Dublin and 16% from Cork.

Does the Tánaiste believe phone calls will solve the crisis?

They will not. The Deputy is like the Member who raised questions yesterday, expecting a silver bullet to solve the affordable housing problem. That is not going happen.

Nothing is happening. No affordable homes are being provided.

It has been going on for the past seven years.

The Deputy does not like to hear what is happening because it is starting to work.

Where? What planet is the Tánaiste on?

This has been in place since 2014 and nothing has happened.

Deputies.

There is a broad range of measures to reduce rental inflation and to increase the number of affordable homes which are available.

It is not working.

In the past several weeks, the Minister has been speaking to the European Investment Bank, EIB, on funding new proposals and cost rental, another concept which the Government is developing.

This has been going on since 2014.

Will Deputy Ó Broin stop interrupting the Tánaiste?

There is a specific category of person who cannot simply get access to the financial resources and lending to be able to buy homes at affordable prices.

Irish citizens.

That is what this loan scheme is going to respond to. We are getting significant interest in it which is showing that it is working.

How many?

It will not be solved by phone calls.

I understand why the Tánaiste is so sensitive on this issue because Rebuilding Ireland was his plan. He signed off on a document which contained not a single target over its six years for a single purchase for a rental affordable unit. As everybody knows, phone calls will not solve the affordable housing crisis. Affordable homes will.

I will ask the question again. How many affordable homes will be delivered this year funded through central government schemes? We know the answer, which is why he would not give it. It is zero.

The real issue is that all the measures, which the Tánaiste and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government continually repeat, will not deliver homes at genuinely affordable prices, namely, between €170,000 and €225,000. That is real affordability. Will the Tánaiste not finally accept that the measures which the Government is funding, at great cost to the taxpayer, are not delivering affordable homes? Will he agree the time has come to fund local authorities in an ambitious programme to deliver genuinely affordable rental and purchase homes on public land?

It is good to hear the Deputy is no longer talking about social housing targets because we are actually starting to meet them now.

I am talking about affordable housing.

This year we will deliver over 4,000 and last year it was 2,000.

When the targets are so low, it is easy.

Even the Minister is smiling at that claim.

The Deputy does not like the answers to the questions.

I would like the Tánaiste to answer the questions.

Will the Deputy now allow me to give the figures on affordable housing? Through the serviced sites initiative, as well as a combination of money and land, we now have a target figure of 3,000 units.

When will this be met?

We will be getting the figures back from local authorities.

Will it be 2019, 2020 or 2021?

In the time it takes to build the houses.

It has been six years already.

We will move on. I have called Deputy Howlin.

This is the usual problem with Deputy Ó Broin. When one provides the data and the answers he requests, he tries to talk one down. He just does not want to listen.

We will move on. I have called Deputy Howlin.

The truth is Rebuilding Ireland is now starting to gain traction and is working. The Deputy, however, does not like to hear the facts.

The plan has failed.

There are more homeless persons.

It is semi-detached government.

Order, please.