As the Tánaiste is well aware, we are in the grip of the worst housing crisis in the history of the State. Despite report after report, promise after promise, and Minister after Minister with responsibility for housing, the emergency remains and families throughout the country continue to suffer in an awful way.

Yesterday, the Taoiseach referred to the problem of supply and the importance of addressing that element of the problem. The specific issue I want to raise with the Tánaiste is the apparent paralysis that exists when it comes to addressing an existing supply, namely, vacant dwellings, which all of us here know are located throughout the country.

In my county of Tipperary, the total number of vacant dwellings in 2011 was 4,817 out of a total housing stock of 38,390. That was 12.5% of the total stock, a figure which must be alarming. The latest indicators from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, reveal that out of a total housing stock of 38,937, the vacancy rate has only gone down to 11.9%, which is minuscule. It is less than a 1% drop in more than five years which, as the Tánaiste is aware, have seen the crisis reach epidemic proportions. If we continue at that rate it will be 2073 before the vacancy rate in Tipperary drops to less than 1%.

That demonstrates that no Government policy has worked to any effective degree in terms of putting vacant dwellings back into the housing market. The working group chaired by the Housing Agency has undertaken preparatory work on the vacant homes strategy. The output of the working group was presented to the Department in June 2017 and is being further developed with a view to publishing a report in the near future. Yet another report, yet another delay.

Two weeks ago, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, acknowledged that the repair and leasing scheme and the buy and renew scheme developed to assist local authorities or approved housing bodies to address the problem of vacant dwellings was an absolute failure.

He informed us that at the end of 2017, a total of 820 applications had been received under the scheme but only nine homes had been delivered and tenanted. The Tánaiste was also the Minister with responsibility for housing. If we cannot even manage to get vacant and habitable dwellings up to scratch and back into the market, what real hope do we have of addressing the massive supply deficit of new builds? In my own county of Tipperary only 11 houses were built between 2011 and 2016, despite the fact that we had over 3,000 approved applicants and 10,000 on waiting lists. Why on earth should anyone have any faith in the Government's pledges and promises to tackle the crisis? Is it not time to accept that on this issue the Government is ideologically blind and simply unwilling to take the kind of action required?

I am glad to update the House on the encouraging trends in the increased supply of houses. This is a market that has been under pressure for a number of years. It is one we are going to fix, but it will take some time. New CSO figures for new dwelling completions will clearly show the general upward trend across all housing construction activity. Essentially, more than 18,000 new homes were made available for use last year. Just over 2,500 were vacant homes brought back into use. Roughly 1,000 were unfinished homes from the era of Fianna Fáil housing policy.

Seven years in government.

There were very few homeless.

Some 14,500 were new build homes occupied for the first time. These figures do not include over 2,000 new student bed spaces also completed last year. Permission to build 24,531 new homes was granted in the 12 months up to March 2018, up almost 40% on the figure for the previous 12 months. In the first quarter of 2018 alone planning permission was granted for 8,500 new homes, an increase of more than 81% overall. There was an increase of 178% in the number of planning permissions for high density apartments, which is exactly what we need in cities to deal with housing demand and respond to the affordability challenge many first-time buyers, in particular, face. It is due substantially to the new fast-track planning process which the Government introduced to make sure we could make the right planning decisions in a shorter timeframe to get the market moving.

The CSO's report shows that in the first quarter of 2018 there were 3,562 new dwellings built, an increase of 27% compared to the same period last year. The number of commencement notices is up by 23%, with notices for 18,500 new homes nationwide in the 12 months to April 2018. As an indicator of multi-unit developments, there were 9,355 housing guarantee registrations recorded nationally in the 12 months to April 2018, up 35% on the figure for last year. On linked construction which is also an indicator, 83,000 people were employed in the construction industry in the first quarter of 2017, up 14% on the figure two years earlier. We are seeing more people becoming involved in building, the granting of planning permission for more homes and more high-density complexes and more social housing being delivered. Yes, it is not fast enough for many people who want to buy homes or are on housing lists, but it is accelerating all the time and the plan is working. It will take time to take full effect.

It is not working.

On what planet is the Tánaiste living? I know that he wears spectacles, as do I. His must be much better than mine because I cannot see the houses. Certainly, I can see the homeless.

The Deputy does not want to recognise the facts.

As usual, the Government is full of bluster on this issue, but the time for excuses is over. The blame lies squarely on the Government's shoulders, without going back to Fianna Fáil. We could go back to the last century if we wanted to do so. As Joyce Fegan and Elaine Loughlin have reported in the Irish Examiner, while the Government has promised to deliver 3,800 new social houses in 2018, local authorities are set to miss that target by almost 620. It is happening all the time. I attended a meeting of the housing committee yesterday and we had all of the CEOs in. We could talk forever. If talk could build houses, the Government would be great, but it is not building houses. Historically, Fine Gael never built them either. It is not interested in ordinary people. It is only interested in the people who have a line of daffodils up the lane, big houses and mansions, not ordinary people.

That is rubbish.

The Government's record is a disgrace. Perhaps that is why the Taoiseach gets a little irritated with the media when journalists like Elaine Loughlin and others expose the Government. They should expose it more because we have had plans and figures to beat the band but no houses. The Government does not seem to care or empathise or else there is another greater reason it does not want to build houses. I do not know from where the Tánaiste is getting the figures he is quoting, but I have them from journalists and the CSO.

The Deputy can quote whatever figures he wants, but I am quoting the CSO's.

As am I. Obviously, the Tánaiste's glasses are better than mine.

There is only one person rambling on this issue. I am giving the facts.

I am not rambling at all; I am just telling the truth.

The Deputy might not like the facts. Looking at the social housing challenge, the truth is we need to look back to see where we were in 2011 when the previous Government had to fix multiple problems.

I am talking about what is happening now.

There were 3,000 ghost estates, as well as a decrease of 90% in the level of construction activity. Almost two thirds of jobs in the construction sector were lost. House prices had fallen by 50% in most of the country. That is the legacy of others in the House.

Yes.

Blame someone else.

It is seven years later.

How many social houses did the Tánaiste's party build?

Fine Gael is now in government for seven years. If it is in office for seven more, it will still be at it.

There are 4,500 every year.

The record of my party in government, in working with the Labour Party, is very different. We have created a partnership Government which has a dedicated Minister with responsibility for housing.

Fine Gael missed its own targets by a mile. The Tánaiste should not blame anyone else.

The Tánaiste ran out of the then Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government.

For the first time we have established a multi-annual budget - €6 billion - which will deliver an extra 50,000 social housing units by the end of 2021 and a lot more after that.

Failure.

The Deputy should look at the facts rather than the political narrative he is trying to sell.

The Government should look at the facts.