I thank the Deputy for that endorsement.

The lack of housing and the level of homelessness are an appalling blight on our society and, without question, represent an emergency. It is an emergency that demands urgent, effective and targeted action. Too many families and children are homeless. Rents are far too high. Too many people are waiting far too long for council houses. Young working people cannot afford to buy houses. Students' third level experiences are compromised and diminished by the housing crisis and the high cost of accommodation. Official figures do not tell the full story. We all know, from the people we meet at our clinics, the countless number on social housing lists who are living with their parents and other families and of the ensuing strain and stress for all concerned. It is an emergency that has lacked any effective intervention. If the contents of the series of governmental and ministerial announcements in the past four years had come to fruition, in any shape or form, the problems would not be half as bad as they are. Delivery has not matched the high-blown rhetoric of ministerial announcements.

The repair and lease scheme, promised in 2017, promised 800 houses, of which none has been delivered. The affordable rental scheme, promised since 2015, has delivered nothing. The rapid build scheme, announced in 2015, with a target of providing 1,500 houses, has delivered 208. NAMA had nearly 7,000 units certified as being available for local authority and social housing, of which approximately 2,400 were delivered. There were 400 units promised by the end of 2018 under the affordable homes scheme, but the number delivered is zero. There was meant to be credit union off balance sheet funding for housing, with a clearing house group set up in 2015, but as yet nothing has been delivered. The Poolbeg West scheme was a strategic development zone announced by the Tánaiste, Deputy Coveney, in May 2016. He said the pace at which it would be delivered would take us by surprise. He certainly took us by surprise. It has not yet been delivered and will not be for another couple of years. In 2015 Deputy Alan Kelly announced a public private partnership to provide 534 houses. The successful tender was announced only yesterday and the houses will not be completed until 2020.

Above all is the farcical situation where local authorities must submit plans for any build that will cost more than €2 million to the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. That is also the case with any development of more than ten houses and it takes nearly 50-odd weeks to deliver them. These bureaucratic delays at local authority level are farcical and mean that local authorities have an inability to get schemes off the ground.

Does the Taoiseach accept that there is a fundamental gap between ministerial announcements and delivery and will he explain the absence of delivery across the board? Does he accept that we are facing an emergency?

I know that the issue of housing is of huge concern to people across the country and that many will express that concern by attending the protest today. I know that many people are frustrated by the pace of delivery. I, too, am frustrated by it, as is everyone in government. We all understand and share those concerns and frustrations and the desire to get results much more quickly. The Government is investing huge resources and amounts of time in the issue. It is determined to get on top of it and resolve the housing crisis.

People often ask what the Government is doing to deal with the problem. I could speak for hours about all of the actions and measures that are under way. I will mention the five main ones.

The biggest social housing programme in decades is under way. It will provide more than 100,000 houses in the next ten years, including 8,000 this year alone. People on housing lists will receive the keys to new homes this year and more will receive them next year.

The supply of new homes for people to buy is being accelerated. About 20,000 new houses and apartments will be built this year, up from 15,000 last year and 10,000 the year before. There will probably be 25,000 built next year. There is an acceleration of home building all around the country. Behind the figure of 20,000 new houses and apartments are 20,000 families - men, women and their kids - who are moving into new homes for the first time. There are more people renting than ever before and because of this the Government has passed new laws to strengthen the rights of tenants. It has brought in rent caps in urban areas to stop the spiralling, double-digit rent increases, but there is more to be done in that area. The laws need to be tightened further and enforcement needs to be improved. That is exactly what the Government intends to do.

In the past couple of years the Government has focused on the issue of rough sleeping. The latest count shows that the number who are rough sleeping is down by 40%. That was not by accident. It happened because the Government had worked with NGOs and charities to get people off the streets, place them in secure accommodation and ensure they would have wraparound supports to deal with other issues related to health, addiction and family breakdown in order that they would not end up on the streets again. We are seeing progress in that regard.

The Land Development Agency has been established. People ask why the Government does not use State-owned lands to build housing. That is exactly what it is doing. It is public land and taxpayers' money that will be used to provide housing for everyone in society. There will be a mix of social housing, affordable housing, cost rental accommodation and houses for purchase.

All of these things are under way. I appreciate that we are playing catch-up, but we are catching up. I understand people's frustration that things are not happening more quickly, but we are determined to ensure they will happen and happen more quickly.

I asked the Taoiseach if he thought it was an emergency and that we were in a crisis. I also asked him to explain the absence of delivery across a range of schemes that his Government had announced in the past four years that had not been delivered. If we are in an urgent crisis, as we are, the simplest problem to tackle is the inexplicable delay in the approval of housing schemes submitted by local authorities to the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. It takes about 59 weeks. Anything that will cost over €2 million has to be sent to Dublin. Why is the Government paying the CEOs of local authorities? Why is it paying whole teams in the housing departments of local authorities? Given the urgency of the issue, it should be telling local authorities to build 500 houses and get it done. It could be audited afterwards, but this is an emergency, a crisis. It is beyond belief that housing schemes in Kilnamanagh submitted 12 months ago are still awaiting approval in principle from the Department in the legendary four-stage process. Does anybody in government get it? Does anybody in officialdom get it? Every Deputy knows people who call in every week, in desperation, knowing that there will be no house for them in three or four weeks' time when they will be evicted, yet there are these long, unacceptable delays. They should not have to be sent to the Department, given the emergency we are in.

Will the Taoiseach explain the Poolbeg development which was announced by the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Coveney, in 2015. He said the pace with which it would be delivered would surprise us.

The public private partnership for the supply of social housing was announced by Deputy Alan Kelly in 2015.

The Deputy has made his point. Time is up.

The tender was announced yesterday. Will the Taoiseach explain it? No one believes the announcements for the next five or ten years, given what happened with previous ministerial announcements. That is a fair point. No one can attach any credibility to what has been said will happen in the future, given that the announcements made in the past did not deliver.

Maybe if an emergency was declared, Fianna Fáil would vote for it next time, for God's sake.

It is an emergency. I am on record as having said that as far back as January or February of this year, if not long before that. Of course it is an emergency. If it was not an emergency, we would not be spending €60 million a year to put people up in emergency accommodation, we would not have brought in rent caps in urban areas and we would not have brought about fast-track planning. They were all emergency measures brought in because this is an emergency. Calling it an emergency does not actually solve the problem. What solves the problem is building houses and new homes and apartments that people can live in. That is where there is delivery. If we look at the facts, nearly 20,000 new homes and apartments will be built this year. That is up from 15,000 last year and 10,000 the year before. Before Christmas, 20,000 new homes will have been built this year and 50,000 or 60,000 people will have been given the keys to a new house. They can then live in those homes and free up accommodation for others. That is real delivery. The truth is that there are rate-limiting factors. There is only so much concrete in the country and only so many serviced sites and construction workers. There also has to be a planning process. We are ramping things up as quickly as we can. Again, to look at the numbers, when we started on this programme, less than 10,000 homes were being built. We then had 15,000 last year and we will have about 20,000 this year and 25,000 next year.

I do not know who is counting.