According to a national survey by the Real Estate Alliance, the average house price across the country is now rising by almost €100 per day. Today saw the release of the latest Daft.ie sales report, which shows that the average listed price nationwide in the first quarter of 2022 was €299,000, up 8.4% on the same period in 2021, with the largest increases in Connacht–Ulster, where prices rose by 20.1% in the year to March. This is indicative of the systemic failure of the housing policies being pursued by the Government that the Taoiseach leads.

The social media commentary on this issue consistently refers to the stories of people who are locked out of the market through their inability to access mortgages. A combination of high prices and low wages resulting from the extremist ideological position pursued by the Taoiseach and his partners in government to satisfy their free-marketeer masters comes at the expense of ordinary citizens and it is unsustainable. Let us consider the knock-on effects of this failure and the most vulnerable in society. It is a real test of how Government policy is working, or, in this case, not working.

Just an hour ago, I received an email from parents and friends of people with intellectual disabilities in south Donegal. They provided me with the names of 17 people in my immediate area for whom there is no provision for sheltered accommodation. One man has been on the social housing list for 16 years. Many of the elderly parents of those affected are sole caregivers and worry about their children's future beyond their lifetimes. Can you imagine the stress this puts on parents and the anxiety associated with wondering every day who will care for their loved ones when they are gone?

Approved housing bodies operating in Donegal have told me that financial viability modelling constrains their ability regarding project approval in towns and villages across the county outside Letterkenny. There is housing need but the bodies are not allowed to meet it. This is compounded by housing assistance payments, HAPs, that have been stagnant for six years in the face of a 20% rent increase in Donegal over the same period. I raised this three weeks ago with the Tánaiste. It is pushing people into poverty, yet we see no action.

The income limits for social housing eligibility have not been reviewed since 2011. It is depressing to read the litany of parliamentary questions tabled by Members on this topic and the ministerial responses that blatantly ignore the questions asked. Will the Government urgently review the HAP and social housing income thresholds to address the cost-of-living crisis?

Will he explain the Government's policy on the provision of sheltered accommodation for vulnerable adults in order that I can go back to my constituents, many of whom are watching this debate today, with an answer for them regarding the long-term care of their adult children?

I have said consistently in the House that housing is the single most important social and economic issue facing us as a country at this moment in time. Access to housing is fundamental to people's sense of well-being, security, stability and health, and for us as a broader society in terms of our progress as a nation. That is why we have, on a whole-of-government approach, developed the Housing for All strategy, with significant resources put at the disposal of that strategy, namely €4 billion a year every year over the next five years and beyond.

I am in no doubt as to the scale of the challenge and the need to get, at a minimum, to 33,000 or 34,000 houses built per annum in this country. That will take a variety of forms, from social housing to private housing, affordable housing, cost rental and the HAP initiative. We are building more social housing now and reducing, over time, dependency on HAP. For the time being, given the scale of the HAP provision over the past decade, it will be necessary to enable people to access social housing.

The decisions we have taken represent watershed interventions in the housing market. Covid impacted us over the past two years, with the two lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. On the positive side, the number of new builds commenced in 2021 was 31,000, the highest figure since 2008. Approximately 20,000 houses were completed in 2021, notwithstanding the lockdown. That is not enough. Until we get an adequate supply of houses, we will not be able to deal with all the manifestations of the housing crisis in all their forms.

Approximately 40,000 planning permissions were granted in the year to quarter 3 of 2021. The challenge for 2022 is to maintain that momentum. Inflation has proved to be problematic. As we discussed earlier, the massive increases in the cost of living and construction materials are now having an impact on the pricing of house construction and the price of housing more generally.

Regarding approved social housing bodies, I ask the Deputy to send the detail of what he has raised to me because we have the capital and we are supporting many approved social housing bodies in respect of the provision of social housing. I am not au fait with the specifics of the sheltered housing problem to which the Deputy referred in Donegal, but funding is there for approved social housing bodies to complete projects. Our approach is a constructive and proactive one, operating with approved social housing bodies to get as many projects as we can started and completed. That is our objective. We do not want to frustrate people and we do not want any barriers to frustrate organisations and approved social housing bodies in that regard.

On HAP, there are flexibilities within the scheme in terms of increases over and above the normal threshold in given situations.

The Taoiseach said the housing issue is the single most important social issue of his time. That is true, but the Government has failed miserably, and is continuing to fail miserably, to solve or deal with the issue because it has focused entirely on the private housing market to solve this issue, and the private sector will not do it. The only way to deal with this issue is through a public building programme.

A family of four earning €28,000 a year cannot get on the housing list in Donegal and will never, ever be able to buy a house in Donegal. That is the reality of the situation. That is what the Taoiseach is missing in everything he is saying and the facts he is throwing out regarding what is being done. These people are continuously being left behind because the Government is not dealing with them. None of its housing policies will deal with those people and they will not get on the housing list because they are not allowed onto it. The Government's policies stop that. The reason the Government will not let them on the housing list is because the housing list would balloon through the roof straightaway, and that would be a massive failure that would expose the Government housing policies for what they are. The reality is that the policy is not working. Public housing bodies and solutions led by local authorities are the only way to deal with the issue.

That is what we are doing. There is a very strong social housing construction component in Housing for All. It is the largest component. In 2022, we will deliver close to 12,000 social homes, the highest number ever, of which 9,000 will be new builds. In addition, since the Government came into office more than 18 months ago we have focused strongly on voids, as has the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. In the past 18 months, 5,500 social homes have been brought back into use. Again, we have put effort into that and we wanted an urgency attached to that. In the current context, we are saying to local authorities that there should be no excuse for houses being left vacant. When people leave homes for different reasons, those houses should be reoccupied very quickly thereafter. There will be no toleration. We are saying to local authorities that they cannot allow social housing stock remain idle. This year, we have provided funding for 1,500 void homes to be remediated and brought back into use. There is a very strong social housing component. In addition, there is cost rental, which will be a significant measure. It will take time to ramp up.