The Government's approach to housing is failing miserably. Dublin City Council and Cork City Council commissioned KPMG to conduct analysis of future housing needs as part for their development plans for the period 2022 to 2028. These reports are frightening. They reveal that the housing crisis is set to get even worse in the coming years, even if the Government delivers on current policy. Here are the facts according to the reports.

In Dublin, average house prices are expected to rise by 36% to more than €500,000. That is mind-boggling. Rents in Dublin will increase by 50% to an average of €2,500 per month. That is not for a family home; it is for a one-bedroom apartment. In the Taoiseach's home city of Cork, the outlook is just as bleak. In his neck of the woods, by 2028 the average cost of a home will be just under €500,000. Renters in the city that the Taoiseach represents, his constituents, are set to be hammered. Rents in Cork are expected to increase by an incredible 36%. These are the projected price increases even if all of the Government's targets are met.

Let us imagine a family starting out in Douglas or Carrigaline listening to and realising this. Ordinary workers in Dublin, Cork and throughout the State are already struggling to meet astronomical housing costs. Wages have not increased, and they certainly will not increase at anything like the same rate as price inflation over the next seven years. How on Earth does the Taoiseach expect people to be able to put a roof over their heads?

A generation is today locked out of affordable housing and home ownership is a pipe dream for many. We thought the Government's housing crisis could not get any worse but the message from the reports to which I refer is that we have seen nothing yet. Without a radical change in Government housing policy, we are looking at a serious catastrophe; a disaster for workers and families, for society and for Ireland’s long-term economic attractiveness and stability.

These are significant reports. They were conducted on behalf of the two largest local authorities in the State in order to allow them to plan the development of their cities. They are based on the most up-to-date data from the CSO and the ESRI. For a Government with an ounce of cop-on, alarm bells would be ringing very loudly. Instead, we get deafening silence, heads stuck in the sand, no urgency to respond, no forward-thinking, and, frankly, no common sense.

The Government needs to change the direction of its policy away from the interests of developers and investor funds and focus it squarely on meeting the housing needs of workers and families. The very first thing it should do is significantly ramp up investment in the direct delivery of genuinely affordable homes. The target of 1,250 affordable homes next year is nowhere near enough. We need 8,000 genuinely affordable units every year in order to avoid the nightmare projected in these reports. That is the level of ambition required.

Léiríonn na tuairiscí a rinneadh do chomhairlí cathracha Chorcaí agus Bhaile Átha Cliath go bhfuil sé beartaithe go leanfaidh an ghéarchéim tithíochta ar aghaidh agus go bhfuil sí chun éirí níos measa fós. Tá athrú polasaí Rialtas dáiríre ag teastáil go práinneach.

My questions are simple. Has the Taoiseach read the reports? Is he concerned by the forecasts they contain? Does he accept that a fundamental change in Government housing policy is required to end the housing crisis?

The Government has prioritised housing as the key social issue that needs to be addressed. In that context, it produced Housing for All, which is the very opposite to the so-called deafening silence on the part of the Government to which the Deputy referred. I have listened to her for quite a long time on housing but I see very little substance. I see a lot of sloganeering, sound bites and nice catchy phrases, but I do not see real substance from a policy perspective.

You do not see the houses either.

I would say to Deputy Cullinane that if Sinn Féin had voted for the proposals relating to the Oscar Traynor Road site, I would believe a bit more in its credibility. Sinn Féin needs to explain.

I do not understand how Deputy McDonald can stand up and rant on in the sound-bite manner in which she does and sit down without explaining to anybody why Sinn Féin voted against 853 social, affordable and cost-rental homes at the Oscar Traynor Road site. The latter was the latest in a series of deliberate decisions by Sinn Féin to oppose substantial housing proposals for Dublin. In Dublin City Council alone since the local elections, Sinn Féin has voted against 5,000 homes in Dublin.

Will the Taoiseach answer the question?

The Deputy is not the leader of Sinn Féin.

It voted against 1,200 social, affordable and private homes in Donabate. It voted against them. How can we declare something a crisis in that light? I have said this to all, but Sinn Féin in particular has been opposing projects across the board that involve social and affordable housing.

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has committed to 4,000 new affordable purchase and cost rental homes in 2022 and €676 million has been allocated in respect of affordable measures across the board. The help-to-buy scheme is to help enable people to afford housing, yet Sinn Féin opposes that also. I do not see the policies from Sinn Féin. When you read through its documents, they are threadbare. The Government is saying that, realistically, we can provide up to 11,500 to 12,000 social houses next year. Those are social houses, something the Deputy ignored in her contribution. Close to 10,000 of those will be direct builds through local authorities or approved housing bodies. Sinn Féin just comes along and says "Oh, we think that should be 20,000".

As did the ESRI.

It is like Tommy Cooper long ago, it is a case of just like that. "Just like that, we will make it 20,000". The Minister says there will be 4,000 affordable and, just like that, Sinn Féin will say "We will make it 8,000". There is no substance behind it.

It is just empty rhetoric as far as I can see. The Sinn Féin approach to housing is to exploit the housing crisis to suit its electoral and political base. That is the fundamental objective there.

Whatever one's views are, Housing for All represents a very comprehensive approach to housing. The Secretary General of my Department chairs an implementation group comprising Secretaries General of the other key Departments involving key work streams from workforce planning right through to finance and securing State lands for the building of housing. There is now a very comprehensive delivery mechanism at the heart of Government to deliver on the Housing for All objectives. We now know that in the 12 months between October 2020 and this October we have had 31,000 commencements. That is the highest number of commencements in a decade. Thus, the policies we have announced are having an impact. House construction was hit by Covid at the beginning of the year with the lockdown up to April, and likewise with the previous lockdown in 2020. I argue the Government's policy in Housing for All is far more detailed and substantive-----

It is not working

-----than anything Sinn Féin has to offer.

And it is not working. Whatever the Taoiseach's view of me, I am sure he will agree the ESRI and KPMG are not, surely to God, ranting as well, or are they? The evidence they have adduced through a very comprehensive study, using data from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, and ESRI, which are hardly ranters or ravers, show house prices will be at €500,000 on average, or more than that in Dublin and Cork, respectively, and rent will increase by 36% and 50%, respectively. If the Taoiseach thinks that reflects a policy that is working then he is even more adrift from reality than even I feared, at his worst moment.

Hear, hear.

This crisis is set to get worse if the Government persists with its current policy. Those are the facts. We saw figures from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, BPFI, showing almost half of first-time buyers must run to their parents for help to secure a deposit. It is called the bank of mammy and daddy. Not every mammy and daddy are in a position to bankroll every son and daughter. Those who can are the fortunate ones. All the evidence stacks up that this Government is failing. Its housing policy is failing. However, the really alarming thing is it will not look to the evidence and it will not set out a coherent plan for success in housing. It prefers instead to attack the Opposition.

The Housing for All strategy was announced some months ago. It is the plan. I challenge Deputy McDonald to come up with a detailed, substantive alternative plan to the Housing for All strategy because she knows deep down the detail is there and it is comprehensive. The issue is now delivery and implementation because supply is key to the housing crisis. That begs the question of why her party on the ground consistently opposes-----

Not true.

-----significant housing.

We do not.

It does.

Is giving away public land to private developers the solution?

Deputy Carthy has said it - it is ideology.

That is the cause of the housing crisis in the first place.

On Oscar Traynor Road, how long more are we going to have to hang around waiting?

The Taoiseach has not recognised the role of Fianna Fáil policies in causing the housing crisis.

Deputy Carthy, stop interrupting please.

Deputy Carthy has been very helpful in his interruption because he has confirmed Sinn Féin voted against the Oscar Traynor Road proposal.

Yes.

That is 853 social, affordable and cost rental houses.

We have never denied it. The Taoiseach's own councillors voted against-----

As a party, Sinn Féin has voted consistently-----

The Government is giving away public land to its private developer friends.

-----and its Members come in here then and attack the Government.

Fianna Fáil caused the housing crisis.

It is thousands of houses.

The Taoiseach should answer the question.

The party opposed 1,200 units in Donabate. I am answering Deputy Ó Snodaigh's question.

He is not.

The Deputy is not displaying sincerity.

There is no point when-----

The Deputy and his party are not displaying credibility when they come in here and attack, attack and attack. Their solutions are absent.

The Taoiseach's time is up.

Is KPMG insincere as well?

I argue, and I have said it about all parties, that if we are all agreed housing is the number one crisis then Members opposite must ask themselves the question-----

No, you have to ask yourself----

-----as to how they can in good conscience-----

Deputy, please.

-----object to projects that have been years in planning with the councils and involve social, affordable and cost-rental housing.

They will not be affordable. That is the problem.

I thank the Taoiseach. His time is up.

How can they continue to oppose them?

The Taoiseach should ask his councillors about it.

Can we please behave with a little more-----

I hope the Taoiseach makes a new year's resolution to actually answer questions that are put to him. It is kind of embarrassing for the Head of Government to behave like that.

Could we all make a Christmas resolution to behave with a bit of decorum, please?

Honest to God.

I make the point that I did not interrupt anybody when they were speaking.

No, he did not, in fairness.

He did not answer our questions either.

Micheál's headline achievement for 2021. Well done.

I call Deputy Catherine Murphy.