Workers and families delivered a damning verdict on the Government's housing failures in the by-elections last weekend. Today, Sinn Féin has welcomed our newest TD, Deputy Mark Ward, to the Dáil. He is a Deputy who understands the impact that the Taoiseach's policy failure is having on the lives of ordinary people. His first job of work today will be to vote no confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy. That is the mandate he has been given. The people deserve better. People throughout the State tell us daily of their suffering under the Minister's housing failures. They must be listened to. They tell us of rents reaching highs of €2,000 per month, of years on waiting lists for a council house, of working every hour of the day with no prospect of ever owning their own homes and of scrimping and saving every last penny and still barely getting by.

Every day, our newspapers are filled with the real human impact of the failure of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to tackle the housing crisis and today is no different. Today, Fr. Peter McVerry has written to The Irish Times. He tells of attending court with a young homeless boy who was charged with the theft of a bottle of orange of a value of €1. He also tells of a homeless man charged with the theft of four bars of chocolate of a value of €3, and another charged with the theft of two packets of Silk Cut cigarettes. He then contrasts that with a Deputy on his way to or from a very highly-paid second job in Brussels, who stops by at the Dáil to sign in so he can collect his full €51,600 of expenses for attendance at a Dáil that he does not in fact attend. Does that not illustrate how absolutely out of touch this Government is and how glaringly cut off it is from the realities facing ordinary people's lives? I understand that the Deputy in question will make a guest appearance today. He will be here, it seems, to save the bacon of the failed Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government.

People deserve better than that. They deserve better than the nod-and-wink politics of jobs for the boys. They certainly deserve better than a housing Minister who lacks the ability or even the humility to admit and accept that his housing policy has failed. That policy is now in its fourth year and it is simply not delivering. In fact, the problem has got worse. Many of the families, young people and pensioners who may be listening to proceedings in this Dáil find their housing situation is grimmer than ever. It is not good enough to keep spinning, to try to explain things away or to ignore the problem that is evident. Business as usual will not suffice. We need solutions. People want affordable homes to rent and buy, they want measures to deal with out-of-control rents and they want radical solutions to these very real problems. The Minister does not have these solutions and he will not listen to those of us who are offering them.

Does the Taoiseach accept that the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, is simply not up to the job and must go?

The Taoiseach to respond. I ask that Members would watch the clock.

No. I do not accept that. The House will have its opportunity to make that decision, on behalf of the Irish people, this evening.

Once again, I congratulate Deputy McDonald on her party's by-election success. Sinn Féin had a fabulous "get out the vote" operation. We will not be caught off-guard on that on the next occasion.

That sounds like begrudgery.

It is not begrudgery at all.

It is.

A "get out the vote" operation is a great thing to do and all parties do it. Sinn Féin just did it much better. It is a genuine compliment actually.

Can you not take a compliment when you are get one? You do not get many of them.

I think, however, that Sinn Féin should not over analyse the success, or congratulate itself too much. Across the four by-elections, my party won many more votes than Sinn Féin, and Fianna Fáil more still. The result was certainly no endorsement of Sinn Féin's policies.

How many Deputies did Fine Gael get?

I spoke with Deputy Dara Murphy over the weekend. Deputy Murphy is willing to co-operate with any investigation by any statutory body into his attendance in Dáil Éireann, be it the ethics committee, the Committee on Members' Interests or the Standards in Public Office Commission. It is right and proper that the Deputy should do that and he is willing to answer any questions they may ask or provide any documents that may be necessary. I believe that it has, however, shown that our expenses system in this House, while it has significantly improved from ten years' ago with expense now largely being vouched or verified, is far too lax. In this House we have a system that is essentially designed by politicians for politicians and that should change. I will write to the Ceann Comhairle and to the party leaders to suggest that this whole issue should not be a system run for ourselves by ourselves.

Hear, hear.

It should be one handed over to the Standards in Public Office Commission and the next Dáil should have a different regime when it comes to expenses and to verifying attendance. This should be done independently and separately of this House. The time when we make rules for ourselves should end.