I ask Members for their co-operation with regard to the time limits.

This week's Central Statistics Office, CSO, pulse survey makes for grim reading. Some 76% of people sharing rented accommodation do not believe they will ever own their own home. Tens of thousands of people are locked out of home ownership, trapped in over-priced rental accommodation or forced to move back home with their parents, who are beside themselves with worry that their children will ever own their own home. Young couples are unable to save for a deposit because of sky-high rents, and single people are priced out of a market that only caters for two-income households. Separated and divorced people are paying maintenance and rent while trying to save a deposit of 20% for a new home. Families who lost their home after the crash are desperately trying to put an affordable roof over their heads. Every day, I and, I am sure, the Tánaiste and his Government colleagues receive calls and emails from people in these situations. These are the casualties of ten years of Fine Gael housing policy.

The Tánaiste has sat at the Cabinet table for those ten years. These stories and the hardship endured by the people I am discussing are his legacy. In 2011, when he joined the Cabinet, the average price of a new home in Dublin was €318,000. Today, it is €503,000. During Fine Gael's time in office, house prices have increased by 88% across the State and by 99% in Dublin. That is the Tánaiste's legacy. In 2011, the average cost of renting across the State was €781 per month; today, it is €1,256. That is an extra €6,000 per year on rent. In Dublin, the position is even worse. Average rents have increased from €960 per month to €1,745. That is almost €10,000 extra per year for rent for average renters. The Tánaiste's legacy is spiralling house prices and sky-high rents.

When the Tánaiste was elected leader of Fine Gael, he said he wanted to represent those who get up early in the morning to go to work. The only people I see his Government representing are big developers and big landlords, throwing around sweetheart tax deals and land deals like confetti. It has become increasingly clear that Fine Gael is not the party of hard-working people. It is a party of privilege, a party of the very well-off and a party of ever-rising housing costs. In fact, when asked about rising house prices last week, the Tánaiste suggested that things were really not as bad as the Opposition is saying and that the solution was to saddle working people with increasing levels of mortgage debt. Is he that out of touch? Does he not understand the depth of the crisis that he has created?

It is time for the Tánaiste to accept that his housing record is one of failure, that ten years of Fine Gael housing policy has made the housing crisis worse and that if he continues to repeat the mistakes of the past, things will only get harder. It is time to give renters and those seeking to own their own home a break. Will the Tánaiste now accept that the only way to deliver genuinely affordable homes for working people is to follow the advice of Sinn Féin, the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, and the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and to double direct State capital investment in public housing, to deliver 20,000 social and affordable homes annually until this crisis is over?

The fact that the Deputy has to go out of his way to misrepresent what I say and to misquote me is emblematic of how dishonest and two-faced he and his party are when it comes to the issue of housing. What I said was a statement of fact, but I did not say under any circumstances that I thought it was desirable that we should see house prices rise further or get back to the level they were at 14 years ago. What the Deputy misquoted me as saying was absolutely incorrect and he should withdraw it from the record. It is not the first time his party has deliberately twisted, misrepresented and deceived regarding comments made by Ministers in respect of housing, because that is the only way it can gain traction, particularly online. It is a real shame that this is the way the Deputy behaves. Quite frankly, it is beneath him to misrepresent things that Members say in the House for political purposes.

I believe in home ownership and, thankfully, 65% of people in Ireland own their own home. That has nothing to do with Sinn Féin. It is due to policies and decisions made by my party, Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party, the Green Party and others in bygone years. However, it is not a reality for hundreds of thousands of people in the State. For them, home ownership is a dream or a distant possibility. That has to change, and I get that. The Government gets that too and that is why we have taken actions to help people to buy their first home. For example, the help-to-buy scheme has helped tens of thousands of people to secure a deposit to buy a home. That was opposed by Sinn Féin. The Rebuilding Ireland home loan helps people to get an affordable mortgage. This is something we must build on and make more available to more people. The rent pressure zones limit rent increases to no more than 4% in areas where rents are high and rising. As the Deputy knows, that is currently under review to see if we can do more in that regard. In contrast, Sinn Féin's local authorities and councillors in Northern Ireland voted to increase rents. That is the type of hypocrisy we see from the Deputy and his party.

Of course, the main part of the solution, and it is not the sole solution, is more supply of housing of all forms. Social housing to help people get off the housing list does not just benefit people getting off the housing list but society as a whole because it frees up rental properties for others, reduces competition for private housing in the general housing market and helps first-time buyers. That is why between 2016 and 2019, when my party held the housing brief, we increased the supply of social housing tenfold, from approximately 600 per year to 6,000 per year. We are aiming to go higher under this Government and to reach more than 10,000 per year, if possible. However, there are constraints, and the Deputy knows that better than most. Cost rental has been initiated by my party. On Enniskerry Road, we will see the first people occupying cost rental properties very soon. That has nothing to do with Sinn Féin. The Government is going to build on that and there will be far more cost-rental housing as well. The shared ownership scheme, which Sinn Féin opposes here but promotes in the North, is helping people to buy affordable housing.

There is also support for private investment in housing. That is necessary because most people want to own their own home. That means private housing, private enterprise and private developers, all of which Sinn Féin opposes and which it would essentially drive out of the housing market, thus resulting in less housing supply. What was emblematic of Sinn Féin's approach was what it did in Donabate in Dublin Fingal, the county in which I live and not too far from my constituency.

Sinn Féin, for ideological reasons, voted against more than 200 social houses because 600 private houses were going to be built on the same site. The party was so ideologically opposed to private housing and homeownership that it was willing to vote against social housing as well. Does the Deputy believe homeownership should be higher? It is now roughly 65%. Does Sinn Féin think that percentage should be higher, or does it secretly believe in less homeownership? Does the party want a higher percentage of housing in public ownership and a lower percentage in private ownership? I would like to know that, because there has never been an answer to the question of whether Sinn Féin believes in increasing the percentage of homeownership and in more people owning their own homes. I would love to hear the Deputy's answer in that regard.

I thank the Tánaiste. I call Deputy Ó Broin.

Regarding the Deputy’s specific question-----

No, we are over time.

-----on the housing budget and the budget for social housing, that is under consideration at the moment.

I thank the Tánaiste.

The Deputy knows it is. The national development plan, NDP, review and the Housing for All document are all being considered now. Of course we want to increase social housing provision and the social housing budget-----

There are four minutes to answer, and I thank the Tánaiste.

-----as much as we can. However, there are also other demands, and the Deputy is aware of this. Health, education and welfare all have to be catered for.

There are four minutes for the Tánaiste to reply. I call Deputy Ó Broin, who has one minute.

If ever there was a lesson in Orwellian doublespeak and dishonesty, we have just heard it from the Tánaiste. The key problem is that almost every single policy this Government has introduced has pushed up house prices and rents. The help-to-buy scheme pushed up house prices. Rent pressure zones, RPZs, pushed up rental costs. The shared equity loan scheme, which we will debate later today, has been criticised by everybody, including councillors in the Tánaiste's own party. Sinn Féin is the only large party on the floor of the Dáil that year after year has said that 8,000 affordable homes should be built annually. To answer the Tánaiste's question directly, half of those, 4,000 homes, would be affordable purchase for aspiring homeowners. How many affordable homes has this Government delivered for renters and purchasers in ten years? Not a single one through any Government scheme. It is time, therefore, for the Tánaiste to wake up and realise the extent of the Government’s failures. It is time to own up to the misery and heartache being caused for tens of thousands of families, correct the error of these ways and invest in the homes that working people desperately need and rightly deserve.

I call the Tánaiste to reply.

I note that I answered the Deputy’s question regarding the budget for social housing. I note, however, that he did not answer my question-----

I did not ask about social housing. I asked about public housing, and surely the Tánaiste understands the difference between the two.

I ask the Deputy to please let the Tánaiste reply.

I do understand the difference between the two and I answered the Deputy’s question, and the same thing applies. Social housing is an element of the public housing budget, which has a wider definition. I did answer the Deputy’s question on that matter. It is under consideration in respect of the national development review and the Housing for All document. We want to increase that budget by as much as possible, but there are also other demands which we must take into account in health, education, welfare, other infrastructure and climate action. We will do as much as we can in all those areas, but it is dishonest to think we can do the maximum in all areas, because that simply does not add up. The Deputy, however, did not answer my question regarding whether his party supports trying to achieve 70% home ownership, and that is because he does not. He pretends and masquerades around the place pretending to be somebody-----

We deliver 4,000 affordable purchase homes per year. How many has the Tánaiste delivered?

The Deputy interrupts me. His party has delivered zero.

How many has the Tánaiste delivered?

In Northern Ireland, his party's shared ownership scheme is not dissimilar to ours

We deliver 4,000 affordable purchase homes annually.

Again, however, the Deputy interrupts and barracks me. He will not answer the fundamental question that Sinn Féin refuses to answer. Does the party actually agree with an increase in home ownership?

I thank the Tánaiste. He has benefited from the clock.

Does Sinn Féin want to see 70% of people owning their own homes in Ireland?

I am moving on.

No, it does not.

Please, Tánaiste.

Looking at the party's affordable housing policy, particularly when it comes to affordable homes-----

We want affordable homes for working people, and not tax breaks for big landlords and sweetheart land deals for developers.

----it's policy for affordable homes is leasehold and not freehold-----

There is no point, Tánaiste, in-----

People who buy affordable homes from the Government scheme will own them, while those who go for the Sinn Féin scheme will not own them. Sinn Féin wants to be those people’s landlord.

The Tánaiste is being disrespectful.

There is no point in having time limits and in having a Chairperson here, Tánaiste, if we are not going to comply with them please. I call Deputy Róisín Shortall.