Again today, the media has been briefed by the Government that it will strip the housing powers of county and city councils to speed up the building of homes. Such sentiments have been expressed before and I remember in September 2018 when the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, breathlessly threatened that he would have recourse to emergency powers in the Department to step in and take control of some local authority functions. It was clearly nothing more than bluff and bluster at that time. The briefing and media spin are incredibly cynical and deliberately timed because the Government is feeling the heat on the doorsteps during the by-elections over the housing crisis. To blame the councils is the Government's response to camouflage its ineptitude and failings. The truth is that elected councillors have very little say in the housing planning process.

The Dáil and the Opposition facilitated the Government in the strategic development schemes whereby any project with more than 100 homes could bypass councils without seeking planning permission. What happened with that? The 10,000 units that got planning permission through the scheme never got off the ground. They have not got off the ground yet. That is two thirds of all planning permissions obtained under the scheme. Do we blame the councillors and councils for this? The truth is the Government has placed councils in incredibly bureaucratic straitjackets that have prevented them from getting very modest projects off the ground. Take, for example, the value threshold of €2 million. Any council that wants to build above the €2 million threshold must get permission to do so from central government and it can take 59 weeks for that process to conclude. In the previous budget we agreed with the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and the Minister with responsibility for housing that the threshold would increase to €6 million. There is nothing big about that, given that €2 million would get ten houses and €6 million might get 30 houses. A year on, when back in budget negotiations, we asked what happened to the €2 million threshold and why it did not increase to €6 million. The Minister, Deputy Murphy, could not get his officials to sign off on it.

Then we have the other bureaucracy around cost-effective analysis for projects of more than €20 million. Deputy Darragh O'Brien did some work through freedom of information requests and discovered the basic guidance on cost-effective analysis has not even issued to councils. This has resulted in a lot of projects being delayed and not going ahead.

We estimate that approximately 2,000 housing units have not progressed because of that bureaucratic delay by the Government. The Land Development Agency was announced in 2016 and re-announced in 2018. Incredibly, the legislation to establish it has not yet passed through the House. All of the projects under the agency are at pre-planning design. Not a single house has been built as a result of that particular initiative.

All of this reveals an inertia and lack of urgency at Government level about the crisis in housing - rising homelessness, rising rents, young people unable to afford housing-----

Time is up, Deputy, please.

-----and a chronic shortage of social housing. Does the Taoiseach accept that it is cowardly and cynical to blame local councils when central government has been the main culprit in preventing the fast delivery of homes?

First of all, I am not aware of any proposal to strip local authorities of their powers when it comes to housing or planning, and no such proposals have been brought to the Cabinet table. Councils have responsibilities when it comes to housing and planning. Central government also has responsibilities when it comes to housing and planning. Those of us who have served-----

What about this morning's report in the Irish Independent?

That is just the spin machine.

-----in the Dáil, in government and on local authorities will be very aware as to the different responsibilities that local authorities have versus central government. The good news, never mind the Deputy's spin, cynicism and all the rest of it-----

No, I am talking about today's newspapers and other media.

Please, allow the Taoiseach to respond.

The Irish Independent-----

-----is that we are seeing enormous progress now when it comes to the supply of new housing.

Ten thousand homeless.

Never mind what I say - listen to the figures of the Central Statistics Office, CSO, which I assume the Deputy does not accuse of being involved in spin. The CSO released its data last week, which showed that over 20,000 new homes had been built in Ireland in the past year, a 22% increase on the year prior to that. They also show an 81% increase in the number of new apartments being built. These are not my figures. They are the CSO's figures, which the Deputy cannot dismiss as spin or cynicism or with any of his usual talking points. These are CSO figures that demonstrate that over 20,000 new homes were built in Ireland last year, a 22% increase on the year before, and there was an 81% increase in the number of apartments built. Take social housing, for example. Somewhere between 10,000 and 11,000 homes are being added to the social housing stock this year, which is more than any year this century. During the boom, during the bust and since all of that, there were never more houses added to our social housing stock than will be the case this year - between 10,000 and 11,000, which is more than in any year this century and the biggest social housing programme in many decades. We are seeing the impact of that. The number of people on the housing lists is going down and house prices are stabilising and even starting to fall in the city of Dublin, which is no bad thing.

In relation to the €2 million threshold, the briefings I am given by the Minister are that, even though they can proceed with their own projects under €2 million, a large number of local authorities do not take up that option. They choose otherwise and go through the Custom House procedure. When one goes over a certain figure, issues arise whether we like it or not.

No, the Government agreed this.

It is the case that the Secretary General of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government is the Accounting Officer, is responsible to the Committee of Public Accounts and is responsible to the Comptroller and Auditor General. There has to be accountability for taxpayers' money. That is what it boils down to.

I am intrigued that the Taoiseach is disowning the deliberate briefing by his Ministers to the Irish Independent this morning.

Is there any Minister quoted in it?

No, as usual.

I suspect that the Irish Independent will be amazed as well that the Taoiseach is disowning the article.

I did not write it. I can hardly own or disown it.

I would like the Taoiseach to disown this morning's briefing to the Irish Independent formally.

He is doing a lot of disowning today.

This is the classic way the Government operates. Government members were in Cork last week with the hard hats and the vests.

That is what is behind this.

That is the problem.

Four of them had shovels. They were digging up the old site.

I was in Cork at the weekend and now the Deputy is irritated.

They did not knock on any door.

We are well used to that.

Knock on the doors, Taoiseach.

Deputy Martin did a fair bit of shovelling in his own time.

Allow Deputy Micheál Martin, please.

This is no smiling matter, Taoiseach.

The facts are getting in the way again.

I ask the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to knock on the doors in Cork North-Central, as I have. They will really feel the anger then. There is real anger on the doorsteps because people do not believe the Government's bluster and spin. They might believe its candidate, Ms Verona Murphy, who said that the Minister had a let them eat cake attitude. Her words, apparently, were: "His attitude is let them have cake." The Taoiseach might comment on that.

Marie Antoinette Murphy.

The real issue is that the people out there are very angry. Parents are angry that their children have no prospect of owning a home. Homelessness is rising. People are ashamed of the fact that this country has such a high level of homelessness and that young children are still in hotels and emergency accommodation.

All they get is a briefing to a newspaper this morning blaming the councils. The Taoiseach's attitude to these issues is-----

The Deputy's time is up.

-----that we will blame everybody else but ourselves. That is his approach to housing and the other key issues facing this country.

Nonsense.

He agreed that the €2 million would go up to €6 million. Is he seriously suggesting-----

Deputy Martin, please.

-----that he cannot trust local authorities to build more than ten houses without having to get sanction from some official in the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government? Is that why we are paying the CEOs of councils large salaries? Is the Taoiseach stating that it would be reckless to allow the councils to spend more than €2 million on projects involving 20 houses?

The Deputy is are way over time. He should conclude.

That is what is delaying the delivery of housing. The Taoiseach has no sense of or feel for how people are suffering out there because of the lack of housing.

Fianna Fáil is not taking any responsibility.

Deputy Micheál Martin should look at himself in the mirror and at his own performance when he was in government.

This is just more of the same from Deputy Micheál Martin. I was in Cork at the weekend, turning the sod on a development of 120 homes, a mixture of affordable and social housing.

Did the Taoiseach knock on any doors?

I met lots of people. I was in Blackpool shopping centre and in Blarney too, where I got a very good reception. The Deputy is clearly irritated about that and------

-----has returned to his usual display of outrage and faux anger. If he wants a classic example of local authorities not fulfilling their responsibilities, Fianna Fáil councillors in Galway city only the other day voted against 20 social houses in Ballybane. That is a classic example of local authorities turning down money from central government and voting against social housing.

What about Senator Noone, who also objected to social housing?

That is an example of it. I am really curious to hear-----

There is something I would like to say because I think it is important, so perhaps it may be possible to do so without interruption. I am really curious to hear Fianna Fáil Deputies raising the housing issue this week. I did not think they would do so, particularly in view of the absolutely paper-thin, nonsensical housing policies put forward by Deputy Micheál Martin at the Ógra Fianna Fáil conference in recent days. Some 600 days ago, we were promised a comprehensive housing policy by Fianna Fáil but we did not get it. What did we get? We got a made-up proposal in a Sunday Independent interview in respect of a different VAT rate for certain types of housing-----

-----even though anybody who has served in government and anyone in this Chamber should know that this is contrary to the EU VAT directive. What do we get at the Fianna Fáil Ógra conference? A promise to instruct the Central Bank to change the macro-prudential rules.

The Taoiseach said the same thing.

Deputy Micheál Martin knows that is not possible because the Central Bank is independent. He also called for an affordable housing scheme that already exists and under which houses are already being built at Boherboy in Cork. What we have from Fianna Fáil, 600 days after promising a comprehensive housing policy, is a proposal on VAT that is against EU law, a proposal to undermine the independence of the Central Bank and a proposal to do something that we are already doing.

We have no houses from the Government.

Anyone who thinks that Deputy Micheál Martin or the Fianna Fáil Party have any alternatives when it comes to housing must really see through them at this stage.

The Taoiseach wanted it all reviewed last summer.

I suppose it would be a futile request on my part to ask Deputies to leave the campaigning outside the Chamber. I doubt that is going to happen. I call Deputy O'Reilly.