We can all agree that 2020 has been a long and strange year. This time last year, we were facing into a general election where we knew that health and housing would be significant issues, and they were. Health has been front and centre all year and there is greater public understanding of the need for a functioning health service, a proper number of ICU beds, proper bed capacity, etc. However, the housing crisis has not received the same attention this year. One of the most important things for society is citizens having secure roofs over their heads. While a substantial housing budget has been approved for 2021, how it will be spent is critical.

I am increasingly seeing new builds being long leased. Instead of the State acquiring housing under Part V agreements, it is in some cases accepting 25-year leases on a 90% of market rent, four-year review basis. At the end of the 25 years, the properties revert to their developers. This appears to be the most expensive way of delivering social housing with no asset at the end. Essentially, the State is paying the mortgage on a new house for the mortgage's duration after which ownership will revert to the developer. What happens then?

This is not only happening in respect of Part V housing. New estates are being long leased. In some parts of the country, they are being acquired by housing associations and local authorities. According to information I received in response to a recent parliamentary question, there were 2,600 leases last year and the average cost was €13,000 per annum. Assuming that cost remains the same over 25 years, it equates to €845 million, which is not too far short of €1 billion, with no assets at the end.

A spending review published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform last month showed that it could be up to 30% more cost efficient for a local authority to build its own housing instead of buying ready-built turnkey units. When the housing assistance payment, HAP, was introduced more than six years ago, some of us warned that if it was not accompanied by a large public housing building programme, it would become unsustainable. HAP was introduced as a short-term measure, but there is no timeline for phasing it out. Realistically, that will only happen when there is sufficient housing stock.

Large sums are being spent on homelessness. For years, many functioning families and individuals have experienced homelessness, with significant evidence of developmental delays for children and high stress levels for all involved. Dublin City Council's spending on homelessness has grown as the problem has grown, but the issue is not confined to Dublin. This spending represents approximately 20% of the council's budget for next year.

Will the spending review by the Department help to change the policy on direct builds? Will the Government undertake a review of the 25-year lease policy as a matter of urgency?

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. The lack of housing supply across the board remains a major crisis in our society. As a result of that, I have chaired a number of housing Cabinet subcommittees, all designed to try to break up the bottlenecks and move things on as fast as we possibly can both legislatively and in terms of various projects. From the July stimulus onwards, for example, we have moved very quickly to get up to 2,500 voids back into a habitable condition prior to the end of this year. That has gone very well.

Overall, as the Deputy knows, budget 2021 provided for an unprecedented level of funding to housing problems next year, with approximately €3.3 billion available for housing delivery in 2021. That will deliver 12,750 new social homes next year. Of that, a record 9,500 will be new build homes. A total of 2,450 homes will be delivered through a range of lease schemes, including repair and lease, mortgage-to-rent and enhanced leasing while a further 15,800 households will be supported through HAP and the rental accommodation scheme, RAS.

Regarding the specific leasing scheme that the Deputy has identified, I will check that out. We have asked the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and I have asked the Minister - he is doing this - to look at every available option in the short term to acquire housing but, predominantly, to build. This is being done to get homelessness down first of all. In the context of Covid, with properties becoming available in different ways, there is an opportunity to, for example, acquire properties in the short term for single people who are homeless. That will help us to eat into the waiting list for homeless people. The Minister has gone all out with the various agencies and his Department's unit to do that. There is also social housing.

Then there is affordable housing. Significant funding has been allocated for affordable housing measures, including the shared equity scheme, the cost-rental equity loan facility, the serviced sites initiative and so forth.

One of the biggest challenges we have is capacity to deliver. That goes right through planning, right through development. I must honestly say that there will be many different schemes and many different approaches. It will not be one-size-fits-all. There is no silver bullet in terms of one particular model that will solve all of our housing problems. In my view, what is required is a multifaceted approach and different models of providing housing. I was at a Co-operative Housing Ireland estate on Monday, a fantastic scheme of 60 plus houses that it developed - they are social housing - in Carrigaline. It was supported through the capital advance leasing facility, CALF, financial system.

The point is that we will have to work at all levels. The projects that are in the pipeline, ready to go and shovel ready should be facilitated by counties up and down the country. Supply is the issue.

I have no doubt that a great deal of money will be spent next year. The one thing we cannot do is waste it; the other thing we cannot do is to take a short-term approach. Long leasing for 25 years on 90% market rents with a four-year review is an expensive way of delivering when the State does not own the asset at the end, but I am increasingly seeing it. Developers are being encouraged to choose this option for Part V housing. When we reduced the Part V obligation from 20% to 10%, the assumption was that Part V housing would deliver permanent social housing, but that will not happen.

The mortgage will be paid over 25 years. That absolutely must be looked at as a matter of urgency in terms of value for money but also good outcomes. In addition, we need to look at where the logjams are. We can throw numbers around about housing lists coming down but it is about how they are coming down. That is important as well because this money is finite. My big ask is that the Taoiseach look at this long-leasing model.

In the first instance, direct build is the preferred model in the context of social housing. That is where the focus will be and where the overwhelming allocation of resources will go. In 2021, we will see the largest State-led social housing building programme in the country's history. We will build 9,500 homes next year, which is more than any single year before that.

I will get the data for the Deputy in terms of the long-term leasing. As I said, some leasing is advisable in the context of the homelessness issue and the desire to acquire properties that have become vacant, particularly in cities, because of the impact of Covid. We are particularly anxious to secure properties that would be suitable for single people who are at risk of homelessness or who are homeless. That explains the mix, but I will get the actual data in terms of the specific leasing scheme to which the Deputy referred. On the social housing front, the predominant model will be to build houses that will remain in stock, either through approved housing bodies or local authorities.