The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has said that professional people should live like students in so-called co-living accommodation because that is the norm in London and New York. It is obvious that prices and rents are out of control in London and New York, which are among the most unaffordable housing markets in the world. London and New York have serious housing problems because housing is now an investment for speculation. As we have heard, it is clear that speculative investment in housing is happening here too. The most recent OECD report warns that the Irish economy is vulnerable to a recession due to a disorderly Brexit. I understand the Tánaiste has indicated that the prospect of a disorderly Brexit is even more likely now. The OECD report also warns that the presence of foreign investors in the property market is a particular risk to us. More than half of all investment in commercial property is coming from outside the State. Student accommodation and buy-to-let properties are crowding out housing developments for people right now, for the simple reason that they are more profitable. It is a textbook example of how a free market approach cannot and will not deliver affordable housing. Does the Taoiseach understand that? These kinds of speculative investments are taking construction workers, scarce land and scarce capital. When housing becomes just another investment that focuses on maximum profit, this forces people to pay more and more in housing costs. That is what is manifestly happening.

The reliance on financial investment also pushes down standards. We have seen this in the ludicrous co-living proposal, which attempts to normalise cramped living conditions and erode public housing standards that we have spent most of our lives trying to improve. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government has become an apologist for those who wish to push down the quality of housing. As I have said, we have spent decades trying to have decent standards for people. All of this shows that the Government is out of touch with the reality of the lives of the vast bulk of working people. Not everyone is privileged enough to go from college into a well-paid professional job, and quickly earn enough to be able to put down a deposit on a family home. The Minister's assumption seems to be that co-living would be an acceptable option for someone on this gilded path. It shows a complete lack of understanding of the kinds of jobs that are available to most people. While I welcome today's jobs figures, I remind the Taoiseach that one in four of the workers to whom he has referred is on less than two thirds of median earnings, or little more than €23,000 a year after tax. Working people need affordable housing. I have a simple question for the Taoiseach. Will he admit that the strategy that has been pursued by the Minister and his Government colleagues is not working? Will the Government change direction in favour of a State-led housebuilding programme, like that which has been outlined in some detail by my party?

The type of development to which the Deputy has referred probably accounts for less than 1% of the new homes being built in the country at the moment. There could be as few as half a dozen developments of this type this year and next year. It is important to put this in context. The type of housing may be a choice for some people. We live in a country that has an increasing population, which is a good thing. Our population is approaching 5 million, if it has not reached that level already. We live in a country where new households are being formed all the time. As people get married and start families, they need their own homes. We also live in a country where there was almost no construction activity for seven years. As a result, there is an overhang of demand for housing that was not met for a long period. In my view and in the Government's view, we need new housing of all different types and sorts, and lots of it. We need social housing for people who are on the housing list, many of whom have been on that list for far too long.

We need new homes for people to buy because the vast majority of people still want to be able to own their own home, and indeed 70% do. We need new places for people to rent involving cost rental models and private models. The solution does not lie in any particular model, whether it is State or private sector. It is going to require all of those things - State-led development, private sector-led development, and co-operation between the State and the private sector. That is how we will produce the volume of additional housing that we need in Ireland to cater for the demand that built up during those seven years and the new demand that arises every year.

We are making some real progress. Last year 18,000 new homes, comprising houses and apartments, were built in Ireland, which is the highest number in a decade. We know from figures released by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, in recent days that new home building is up another 25% this year so far. We will certainly see somewhere between 22,000 and 25,000 new homes being built in Ireland this year. We need to go higher again the year after and higher again the year after that, but it is simply not the case that there was ever a Government policy or measure that could get us from a situation where only 4,000 or 5,000 homes were being built in Ireland to 35,000 in a year or two. We have to do it in the only way that it can be done, in a stepwise manner, rebuilding the construction industry and rebuilding the social housing programme. That is what is being done. Last year, for example, around 8,500 new homes were added to the social housing stock-----

There were 74 homes built in Dublin last year.

-----which is a very significant number. About half of those were built by councils and affordable housing bodies and the other half were acquired from developers, leased, or brought back into use having been voids. We need to go higher than that again. We are aiming for 10,000 this year and 11,000 or 12,000 the year after. This is the largest social housing programme that we have had in this State for decades but there are constraints and we should be honest about that. There are a limited number of carpenters and plumbers, there is a limited amount of building materials and a limited amount of serviced and zoned land in the State.

There is a shortage of blocks.

We can only increase supply as fast as we possibly can and that is what we are doing, through State-led and private sector-led development, as well as the State and the private sector working together.

That is the problem. There are no blocks.

The Taoiseach's reply is just mind-numbing in its lack of ambition. If we had gone into government in 2011 with that attitude to the economic crisis, we would still be in the morass. The Government has to be determined. The notion is that we cannot do enough because we do not have enough land. Is that what the Taoiseach is saying to us?

No blocks.

We have enough public land to build 80,000 houses tomorrow if we had the will to do it.

What about the workers?

We have the builders to do it.

Not tomorrow.

Of course we can find the workers and of course we can train the workers.

Where are they?

The Government must have the ambition to do it. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government wants to demolish standards whereas many of us who worked in local government, where many in this House started, have spent our lives trying to get away from such a thing. We are now talking about people sharing bathrooms or having no bathrooms. Co-living-----

They have private bathrooms.

We are going backwards now. We are reducing standards so that people can live on top of one another. We are creating the social crises of the future instead of deciding that we are going to fix the problem with the same determination and absolute will used to address the economic crisis from 2011 onwards. I do not believe that the Taoiseach understands the issue and I am convinced that he does not have the will to solve it.

With the greatest of respect, the Deputy referred to 2011 when he was actually in office himself. His party was-----

That is the very point I made. We went in with the will to solve it.

His party was, from 2011-----

That was when all of the vultures were invited in.

His party was in office from 2011 to 2016.

So was Fine Gael.

During that five year period, Ministers from his party controlled the housing Department and Deputy Howlin personally controlled the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform-----

We had no money until 2015-----

What about the ambition?

-----when we put in €2.8 billion.

Who was in power with Deputy Howlin?

During that period-----

The only houses the Minister is opening are the ones that we funded.

The only ones being opened now are the ones we funded because Fine Gael abandoned-----

That is not true.

Can we hear the Taoiseach without interruption, please?

The Government abandoned-----

The Deputy has abandoned the facts.

During that five-year period, when the Labour Party was responsible for both public expenditure and for housing, the social housing budget was slashed to almost nothing.

Who was in power with them?

What has happened in the past three years-----

Who was in power?

-----because we now have the money-----

This is just unbelievable.

What has happened in the past three years, because we now have the money, is that we are investing in social housing again.

Was the Taoiseach on the Opposition benches?

The housing budget this year is €2.6 billion. It is the biggest budget for housing ever.

There are no blocks.

This year, 9,000 units will be added to the social housing stock, more than in any year for a very long time.

Is the Taoiseach on a comedy show at the weekend?

We are going to increase that again next year and the year after that.

He does not get it.

What about the unfinished business in health?

When it comes to the apartment guidelines, it was a Labour Party Minister who took the decision to amend them to reduce apartment sizes.

Did the Taoiseach ever finish off that business in the Department of Health?