My question is on another matter, but I have to say that the entire country is flying blind and the Taoiseach should restore those briefings as a matter of urgency if he wants to take people with him in what is a difficult situation.

If the recent opinion poll taken in respect of the by-election in Dublin Bay South is anything to judge by, there is a very real possibility, maybe even a likelihood, that the Government parties are going to lose a seat. There are many reasons that this might happen.

From my experience at the doors the issue is very much to do with an entire generation of young people, which we talked about earlier, and their parents, who are absolutely furious about the failure of successive Governments to provide for that entire generation of young people the prospect of actually being able to have an affordable roof over their heads in the coming years. That problem of the housing crisis caused by the successive failures of Fianna Fáil- and Fine Gael-led Governments is not just for a whole generation of young working people. It also affects older people who might find themselves separated, evicted by landlords because of loopholes in residential tenancies legislation and so on.

The Government and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, have said they are going to try to do something about it. I have very serious doubts about that and about the Government's actual commitment to provide public and genuinely affordable housing for the people who need it. Tonight the Land Development Agency Bill 2021 will be completing its journey through the Dáil. In our view, the Government is going to open up the entire public landbank to private financiers, private investment funds and so on, when that land should be used exclusively for the delivery of public and genuinely affordable housing. By "genuinely affordable" we do not mean €450,000 in parts of Dublin or €400,000, which is completely unaffordable for the vast majority or working people. We mean affordable based on the people's income, where they should not have to pay 50%, 60% or 70% of income on mortgage repayments or on rents. They should have to pay no more than 25%.

When we debated these issues on Committee Stage of the Land Development Agency Bill 2021 recently, on foot of our objections about this the Minister said he would bring in amendments that would mean, at least in the major urban centres, there would be a change of heart by the Government and that public land would be used to provide 100% public and genuinely affordable housing. The Minister has not brought forward those amendments. The Affordable Housing Bill is still not clear that affordable housing will actually be affordable for ordinary working people. Why has the Minister reneged on his commitments to bringing those amendments?

Please Deputy, the time is up.

Why will the Minister and the Government not commit to actually making affordable housing genuinely affordable on public land and on developments where we are getting affordable housing from private developers?

I agree with the Deputy that housing is the single greatest social issue facing the country, and particularly for generations of our young people. It is absolutely essential that we do everything we possibly can to build houses, get supply up, and to provide social and affordable housing: houses that people can afford to buy. The Minister has brought in a range of measures, and is bringing in measures both legislatively and through initiatives, to help people and young people in particular to be able to afford to buy a house. The help-to-buy scheme was expanded and 22,000 people availed of that. The scheme was a benefit to them, even though many in the House opposed it. Likewise, some €700 million is allocated in the budget to affordability measures such as cost rental homes, shared equity schemes, the Rebuilding Ireland home loans and so on. Extra funding has been allocated to the serviced sites fund, which will provide housing through the local authorities that will be affordable for people. Those measures will have an impact.

The Minister has brought forward amendments in the Land Development Agency Bill 2021. The Deputy used the phrase "genuinely affordable", so clearly he is arguing in terms of definitions of what is and is not affordable. The Minister and the Government have approved an amendment to provide for 80% affordable housing in urban areas with populations greater than 150,000. This will provide for 100% affordable and social housing in those areas, given the proposed revised Part V arrangements to be brought in through the Affordable Housing Bill 2021.

It is very important that we get the Land Development Agency Bill through the House before the summer so we can get on with the job of getting houses built and getting houses built on public land that are affordable and social homes, so people can avail of them. I urge everybody, in every political party and on every local authority, to do everything they personally can to get projects through and to reduce delays and opposition to projects that are shovel-ready. We need them built. If we do not get supply up then younger people will be denied access to the kinds of affordable housing, the type which the Deputy wants people to have genuine access to, and which I do too. I accept this. We cannot, however, keep on navel-gazing forever on these issues. We need to make sure that we build enough affordable houses and social housing for those who obviously require social houses.

Consider areas of Dublin such as the Glass Bottle site at Poolbeg where developers like Johnny Ronan and so on are involved. These developers are not building anything for less than €500,000 and often more. That is not affordable. The concern is that the Government will not strictly define "affordable" to ensure that it is actually affordable based on people's income. To pay for a house that costs €400,000, €450,000 or €500,000 a person would need an income in excess of €90,000 or €100,000. That is not affordable.

It is completely unacceptable that house prices would be at that level on public land such as 20% of the strategic development zone land, SDZ, in Poolbeg, which is still in the hands of NAMA. This is unacceptable. Why has the Minister reneged on the commitment he gave to the committee to ensure that publicly-owned land would be 100% genuinely social and affordable housing? Will the Government define "affordable" and not base it on what Johnny Ronan is charging in Cherrywood or the SDZ-----

I thank the Deputy. The time is up.

-----but base it on people's income, so that ordinary working people-----

Time is up Deputy.

An amendment we put to the Sinn Féin motion last night said that it should be no more than 25% of a person's income-----

The Deputy's five minutes is up now, please.

-----and the Government did not oppose it. Will they hardwire that into the legislation to give a clear, legal commitment for genuine affordability?

The Deputy is great for motions, but motions will never build a house. That is all that goes on here, motion after motion. It will not build a house. Once we get the Land Development Agency Bill through and once it is on a statutory footing, the agency will build houses. Up to 4,000 homes can get started fairly quickly-----

Johnny Ronan-----

No, I am not talking about individuals, I am talking about across the country. We can get State land working to get houses built, with social houses and affordable houses, for people. The majority of such lands will remain in local authority ownership post development. There is a portfolio of nine sites already waiting to go that can provide 4,000 houses. The difference really is that to a certain degree the Deputy suffers from paralysis by analysis. The Deputy keeps on analysing every single scheme, and he keeps on finding something wrong with each scheme and a reason to oppose it. This has been the consistent thread on local authorities from the parties opposite with regard to housing provision and housing schemes.

It is because he is not Fianna Fáil.

We want to get on with it. We want to get houses built. We urgently need to do that as a country.