At 2 p.m. on Saturday protesters will gather in Dublin city centre in the latest of a series of demonstrations organised by the National Housing and Homelessness Coalition to protest at the Government's failure to address the housing emergency. The protesters will gather at three different locations in the city centre and then converge on a building, which we will not disclose at the moment but which will symbolise what we believe is the real explanation for the country's housing crisis. It is part of a series of demonstrations that will happen in different cities to highlight the particular problems in different cities. There will be protests this weekend in Dublin, with further protests in Galway and Cork.

There are many reasons to protest in Dublin over the Government's failures in the housing crisis. The number of children and families in emergency accommodation in Dublin in the time that Fine Gael has been in government has increased by 270%. The Government has built a pitiful number of local authority houses that last year did not even meet its own pathetic targets. Property prices and rents have risen to absolutely shocking and unaffordable levels for ordinary workers. In Dublin, rents have increased by 82% since Fine Gael came into government. The average house price is now €446,000, an increase of €53,000 in the past two years. Despite repeated promises we still have no affordable housing scheme. This week we had the debacle of the Rebuilding Ireland affordable mortgage scheme. A whole generation of young working people are forced to live with their parents and sometimes their grandparents.

How did Fine Gael let this happen? We got a glimpse of the answer this morning when we heard about the profits of Cairn Homes, the biggest owner of zoned building land in Dublin, which have increased by an incredible 267%. One can add to that Dwyer Nolan whose profits have increased by 233%. Seán Mulryan is getting paid €204 million by the Central Bank - I love the irony - for its new headquarters. The profits of I-RES REIT increased by 90% in 2018. The profits of Park Developments have increased by 100%. The profits of Kennedy Wilson in 2017 increased by €299 million. It boasts: "We are pleased to complete a record quarter that resulted in the highest level of profits in our company's history." In Dún Laoghaire the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael-controlled council has just sold Johnny Ronan a public site on which 358 apartments could be built.

I thank the Deputy.

My question is very simple. Is that not the real explanation for our housing crisis? While the Government has talked about providing affordable and public housing, it has not done it.

Time is up.

It has actually facilitated obscene profiteering by vulture funds and developers - the very people who nearly brought the economy to its knees.

Please, Deputy.

The boys are back in town and the Government brought them back to town. Ordinary people looking for an affordable roof over their heads are paying the price.

I do not accept that assessment, which will be no surprise to the Deputy. He approaches the housing crisis from an ideological perspective. He believes no one should make any profit from building a house anywhere as far as I can see. He believes that everybody should essentially be provided with a home by the State and that the taxpayer should pay for it all. Our position is that people who cannot afford to buy their own homes need to be supported by the State through affordable housing, affordable rental, supported rental or social housing.

Our economy is recovering from a deep recession that was caused by the collapse of a property market and a banking system. It has taken time to build capacity again in local authorities and in banking systems in terms of builders and developers being able to produce the number of homes that are needed across all sectors. We are now seeing dramatic year-on-year increases in the delivery of social housing. Working with some of the parties opposite, we will see a new affordable housing scheme delivering affordable houses in the next two to three years. We assigned money specifically for that in the previous budget. We are seeing private homes being built. We are seeing more first-time buyers purchasing houses than we have seen for a decade. The Rebuilding Ireland loan scheme the Deputy mentioned is a victim of its own success because we set €200 million aside for it. Clearly that money has now been fully used up and we need to find a way of financing that successful scheme into the future. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform are figuring out a way to do that.

I am not suggesting that we do not have a major housing challenge to solve. Far too many people and far too many families are homeless. The number of families who are homeless has levelled off and we now need to ensure that number reduces dramatically over time. It is not correct to suggest that the delivery of homes is not moving in the correct direction. There were more than 18,000 new homes last year and 8,000 extra social houses. We need to get that figure over 10,000 and we need to increase total house building to more than 25,000, and we will. However, these things do not happen overnight and they certainly do not happen if the State takes on the burden of doing everything itself.

I presume the Tánaiste would not accuse the authorities in Berlin, for example, of being ideological. It is holding a referendum essentially to root out vulture funds and property speculators from Berlin because they are contributing to the housing crisis. That sentiment is expressed across the board in Berlin.

There is nothing comforting in what the Tánaiste has said. He has not responded to the charge that the Government's policy has essentially been about transferring large amounts of land from NAMA, based on the banks we bailed out, to the people who are now profiteering to obscene levels. The business section of today's edition of The Irish Times reports that even those who are profiteering are saying the Government's solution will not work. The CEO of Glenveagh Properties has said that there is not a chance of reaching the target of 35,000 units the Government hopes for and that the private market simply will not be able to do it. However, the Government's targets for building public and affordable housing go nowhere near meeting the shortfall because it has completely relied on the private sector-----

Time is up.

-----through the housing assistance payment, HAP, leasing arrangements and transfers of property assets to these people who are profiteering.

Please, the Deputy is way over time.

That is the fact. Glenveagh Properties plc seems to think it is. Where is the affordable scheme? The Government promised it in 2016, and now the Tánaiste is saying it is going to be another two or three years-----

Can the Deputy conclude please, because he is over time?

-----so there is no hope for a whole generation of young working people whose incomes could not possibly allow them to afford these property prices. Cairn plc properties have an average selling price of €428,000 this year. Has the Government not failed? Why does he not admit it?

When it suits the Deputy, he demonises developers, and then when it suits him to make a counterargument, he quotes them. This is a total inconsistency.

One can quote them.

We are not-----

Sometimes the Devil can tell the truth.

-----developing our housing policy on the back of trying to make developers happy. We have developed a housing policy that can deliver homes for people. We are going to add an extra 50,000 social housing units onto the existing stock over the lifetime of the Rebuilding Ireland plan and we are on schedule to do that. We are not relying on the private sector to deliver them. On a temporary basis, while we are adding the necessary numbers to our social housing, we have an over-reliance on the rental market and we are supporting people in the rental market through HAP and other mechanisms. We have always said that. That is because the problems of today cannot be solved immediately because it takes time to build homes. While we are building those homes, there is pressure and an over-reliance on a rental market which is why we have, on a temporary basis, introduced rent caps through rent pressures zones, to be able to limit the increases in rents that people have to cope with.

Anybody who suggests that one can solve this housing crisis overnight is either misleading people deliberately or is naive. It cannot be done overnight. This is a five-year housing plan and we are on target, despite the fact that there are still serious pressures that need to be resolved.