I also want to be associated with the remarks in relation to the gardaí and send my party's well wishes for a speedy recovery and solidarity to both the gardaí and the community who have been traumatised by this.

Whenever the Government's housing policy comes under attack, the Taoiseach consistently tells us that the State, and not the cuckoo funds, is the biggest player in the housing market. Let us examine this. The Government has called its housing budget the biggest in the history of the State and, at €3.3 billion, it is, but is our money being well spent?

Fine Gael's Rebuilding Ireland programme had a construction target of 8,900 social homes for 2021. Under the Government's revised plan, the target has increased to 9,500. Given the Government has upped the housing budget by €500 million, an additional 593 housing units does not seem like much bang for the buck. Despite the fact that construction target has increased by 593 houses, the Government claims that an additional 28,500 households will secure social housing this year compared to Rebuilding Ireland's target of 22,157. If construction has increased by only 593 units, how is it that social housing provision is increasing by 6,343? The answer is the private rental sector, through an increase of 5,800 housing assistance payment, HAP, mostly, and rental accommodation scheme, RAS, tenancies. The Government's plan to proved social housing is utterly reliant on the private market.

Long-term leasing deals entered into with vulture and cuckoo funds are rapidly increasing but we have no way of knowing how many of these are currently being negotiated. Replies to parliamentary questions cannot be relied on, which is shocking. The only reliable information we get is when individual local authorities speak to journalists and divulge figures. The deputy chief executive of Dublin City Council, Mr. Brendan Kenny, has said that the local authority is negotiating for 1,700 long-term leases. The Taoiseach stated that long-term leasing deals entered into with cuckoo funds are bad value for money and the prospect of local authorities being locked into so many for up to 30 years must fill him with dread.

When the Taoiseach states that the State is one of the biggest players in the housing market, let us be clear about what he means. In case there is any confusion, I want to clarify. The State is prolific in the private rental market. Obviously, that is through those supports I referred to, but it is also snapping up homes on long leases. The State is also, via the strategic investment fund, pumping hundreds of millions of euro into large developments that are exclusively bought by cuckoo funds, and obviously that strategic investment fund is what is left of the pension fund. The State is also determined to sell off vast tracts of land at rock-bottom prices. Therefore, the State is a big player but on the wrong side.

What is wrong with doing what we have always done, and that is directly building? What is wrong with using the Ó Cualann model at scale?

I thank the Deputy of raising the issue of housing which is the key social issue of our time and of our generation.

First, there is nothing wrong with the direct-build model. I want to see more direct build and I am supporting more direct build. We are saying Government wants to develop that.

The housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme the Deputy referred to has been in place since 2014. I do not think the Deputy is suggesting that we switch off that scheme right now because that would mean thousands of people who are dependent, who do not have the incomes to buy or to secure houses, would be deprived of accommodation. That is not a practical suggestion that we immediately wean people off that. There has to be a phased rebalancing of focus in terms of direct building, increasing the housing stock of local authorities and of approved social housing bodies so that one reduces the dependancy on HAP and leasing initiatives over time.

Long-term leasing is bad value. Any public private partnerships, PPPs, or partnerships should involve the stock coming back to the State after such a timeframe. That is my view and I continue to make that clear. However, let us be honest also that the bulk of the focus over the next number of years will be on build in the social housing context but, more than that, in terms of the allocations and the provisions. For example, €690 million is going for affordability measures. That will be the cost rental scheme, the shared equity scheme, the help to buy and Rebuilding Ireland. That is to enable people to afford to buy houses in the private sector but it is very important that people are given opportunities and supports by Government to be able to buy housing at affordable levels. The expansion of Part V of the planning Act to designate a range of homes for first-time buyers, and also for social, within any scheme is an important aspect of that. The 400 units in the cost rental 25% below market values is a good initiative.

We have brought 2,500 social homes back into use since we came into office. These are local authority houses that were lying idle. We gave specific funding to get them back into use. This year, funding is being provided to local authorities to remediate approximately 3,000 units. There is real urgency being applied to this issue. I do not want to see vacant local authority houses out there. That is, in my view, something that we can do quickly and in a focused way.

The Land Development Agency Bill will provide for social and affordable housing on the agency's lands. We need that legislation through to enable the agency to get going. Also, there has been progress made in relation to family homelessness. Overall, we want to directly build 50,000 new homes over the next five years.

The real capacity issue for us as a country is delivery. We are simply not building enough housing units, year by year, right now. Covid-19 hit us last year. It has hit us this year in terms of outputs but we simply have to get supply up. Everybody, at every level, local authority level and national level, needs to put the focus on delivery and getting projects finished.

I am on the record, in 2014, when HAP was introduced, as saying that unless it was accompanied by substantial building what would happen would be that we would be paying in perpetuity rents to the private sector. Essentially, that is what we are seeing because the scale of what is being built is being outstripped by the amount that is being spent on rents.

If long-term leasing is bad, what is the Taoiseach doing about it? One cannot rely on replies to parliamentary questions on this. One hears about long-term leasing locally.

It does not appear on a list anywhere in terms of what is negotiated or concluded. We know what has happened. There is a terrible lack of transparency in what is happening. It is being pushed heavily by the Housing Agency. There is a brochure on its website. In terms of how Ireland is being marketed, there is reference to rental returns. We are being picked over. What is the Taoiseach going to do about long-term leasing? It is going to be such a benefit to the sector that it will mean we will live on the never-never.

We have made the position very clear. There are schemes in place. Last evening a scheme went through in Fingal. It has been in preparation for quite some time. There was opposition to that, again, and that is the point. The Deputy's party opposed it.

And rightly so.

If we keep on opposing every single housing project that comes before us-----

It is Hobson's choice.

We have to get supply up. Everybody in opposition, including the Deputy, says this is an emergency. Yet, they seem to think we have the luxury of voting everything down at the last minute when the project is before the council and all of the negotiations between council officials and other parties have been finalised. The scheme to which I refer includes over 230 social housing units and 230 affordable homes in a housing scheme of 1,200 units. Ideology gets in the way. People say they cannot and do not want to support that. There is always an excuse to object to something. We all have our political or ideological perspectives. For God's sake, we need to get houses built in this country and we need to get them going. One of the biggest problems we have is delivery on the ground and getting shovel-ready projects started.