Ar an Aoine, chonaiceamar an méadú is mó ar easpa dídine ó thosaigh Covid. Tá beagnach 10,000 duine ina gcónaí i dtithíocht éigeandála anois. Is scannal é sin. Is í easpa tithíochta an ghéarchéim is mó sa Stát agus tá sí ag dul in olcas faoi cheannaireacht an Taoisigh. On Friday, we learned that last month saw the single biggest increase in homelessness since Covid began and that there are now almost 10,000 people living in emergency funded accommodation. We have come full circle on this, with the failure of this Government matching that of the previous one. On Monday, three separate reports were published, all showing another massive increase in house prices. In parts of rural Ireland, these increases are more than 20%. The average price of a home across the State now is close to €300,000 and in Dublin it is far more than that. This means that a person needs earnings of between €77,000 and upwards of €100,000 in most of the State to afford a home. That is so far above the earnings of the vast majority of workers as to make home ownership completely and utterly impossible. This locks out a whole generation of home ownership. Of course, the Taoiseach knows that because this morning we saw accounts of a confidential Cabinet memo that states one of the reasons the new auto-enrolment pension scheme is needed is to help pay rent for the increasing number of older people who will now not own a home when they retire and will remain trapped paying extortionate rent. All of this confirms once again that the Government is waving the white flag and telling a whole generation of people they will never own their own home. Young couples starting out in their careers are locked out of home ownership. Single persons, even those on a good income, are locked out home ownership. People in their 30s, 40s or 50s are locked out of home ownership.

Why is this happening? Covid-19 construction site closures had an impact and Brexit supply chain disruptions are a factor, but these are not the main reasons. For far too long, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have over-relied on private investors and developers to meet housing need. God knows, they have dished out tax reliefs, grants and subsidies like confetti. All that has done, however, is push house prices up even more. Never was so much spent to achieve so very little. On top of this, we are now quite rightly supporting families fleeing war in Ukraine and we have an obligation to put a safe roof over their heads at this awful time for their country. We are now dealing with crisis upon crisis. We are dealing with a massive housing emergency and the scale of the Government response needs to match that reality. What is the Taoiseach going to do? It is unconscionable to blindly continue with policies that are so clearly failing. The evidence of that failure is clear to be seen every single day.

I have repeatedly said in this House and since I became Taoiseach that housing remains the most serious social issue and crisis facing our country. Clearly, as the Deputy has acknowledged, the past two years have been very difficult in house construction because of two significant lockdowns. Putting that to one side, however, from our perspective access to housing is fundamental - social housing, affordable housing and a variety of housing types that will meet the needs of a modern society. I believe in home ownership. I am not so sure the Deputy or her party do because they have opposed every measure to do with affordability.

Rubbish.

The help-to-buy scheme benefited 29,000 people. Sinn Féin has opposed it resolutely since its inception. On shared equity, Sinn Féin plays a double game. It actually sneakily voted for it in the end despite all the ranting and raving about it by Deputy Ó Broin and so on. He opposes shared equity, allegedly, but ended up voting for it when it came before the House.

I look at the Sinn Féin policies on affordability. I do not see any coherent policy of substance in terms of people owning their own homes. In terms of its affordable housing scheme, for example, it is clear people will not end up owning their homes. It is threadbare. Sinn Féin lacks substance in its housing policy. I saw this morning another manufactured attack on the shared equity scheme, putting out the old slogan that somehow the Government is looking after the banks versus those who would end up owning homes as a result of a shared equity scheme. It is the old kind of sloganeering. It is about slogans, not substance, all of the time in terms of housing policy.

The Government is putting in €4 billion per annum. There were 30,000-odd commencements last year. We only completed 20,000 in 2021 because of the impact of Covid but we are now looking at a much better situation for 2022. That said, we will need consistently in the next decade approximately 33,000 or 35,000 new houses per annum. I get the sense from Sinn Féin's real position that it hates the banks, builders and private home ownership, it seems to me-----

Shocking.

-----because every time a proposal comes for a mixed type of housing, be it private, public or whatever, Sinn Féin opposes it on the grounds it has to be 100% public on public lands and nothing else. Everything else gets pushed out. I do not know how Sinn Féin thinks we will get houses built without builders or finance. The Government is putting up €4 billion but we will also need private sector finance. We will need public housing and we are committed to 12,000 social houses next year, of which 9,000 will be direct builds. We believe there is a need for private sector rental as well. Sinn Féin seems to oppose and undermine anything to do with small landlords or whatever. It undermines the whole area of private finance because it does not think it is a viable proposition and it should be taken out of the housing market. Sinn Féin goes on with all this sloganeering and politicking in respect of housing.

What the Government is saying is we need all types. We need social housing, affordable housing, private housing and new models like cost rental. Above all, we need supply. Supply, supply, supply is key and we are committed to doing that under the Housing for All strategy. As Deputy McDonald acknowledged, Covid-19 hit house construction in 2020 and 2021 but some positive news from it is the number of commencements in 2021 - 31,000 of them - as well as the fact that the industry itself has come back to pre-pandemic levels in terms of capacity and skills and that apprenticeships in construction-related trades are up 40% in terms of the numbers taking on apprenticeships.

We are working on all fronts to deliver more housing because we need more supply.

It is very clear again that the Taoiseach cannot defend his Government’s record on housing. How could he? Some 10,000 homeless is not a slogan. House prices through the roof, where they are up 20% in rural areas, is no slogan. Generations locked out of home ownership and facing extortionate rents is no slogan. There are 35,000 additional homes now required, according to the Government’s own Minister for Housing, Local Government, and Heritage, on the radio this morning to accommodate families from Ukraine. My God, Taoiseach, that is not a slogan either. These are realities. I am inviting the Taoiseach, as the Head of Government to meet those realities head on. The Government’s Housing for All plan is in tatters and it was never fit for purpose to begin with. But now when we deal with a refugee crisis upon a housing crisis, the game is up. I have simply asked what the Government proposes to do to meet those challenges? I am hearing by way of response more of the same and I have to tell the Taoiseach that that is simply not good enough.

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

The Deputy is wrong in that she is not meeting the realities. Housing for All is a very substantive, well-researched, evidence-based approach to dealing with housing challenges over the next number of years.

I have seen nothing in comparison from the Deputy’s party in response to it and nothing by way of solutions. We all know the reality. I have accepted that housing is the biggest single crisis facing this Government-----

It is the single biggest failure.

-----and we are determined to deal with the reality of that. That is why I have said consistently and all of the time to people of all parties, including the Deputy’s, to stop objecting to the O'Devaney Gardens and Oscar Traynor Road projects of this world if they are sincere about meeting realities. The Deputy’s party lacks sincerity when it has that sort whole-scale opposition to projects that have been on the go for years but have been objected to and have been put back. That is one aspect of it.

The second aspect is around affordability. Every scheme that is brought forward by Government on affordability is attacked by Sinn Féin.

Not true.

Deputy Ó Broin ends up voting for it sneakily at the end of the process but he does that anyway.

Not true either.

That is the hypocrisy that has become his hallmark on housing policy.

Personal attacks are not acceptable, Taoiseach.

These are political and not personal points I am making.

I am sorry but the Taoiseach’s time is up.

I want solutions from the Deputy-----

House prices are still through the roof.

-----that meet the realities of housebuilding and house supply. We are determined going to go on. We will spend €4 billion this year and will continue on a prolonged and consistent social housebuilding programme, the likes of which have not been seen before. We are not going to be deflected from that and we are also going to work on our affordability.

I thank the Taoiseach. Can we restore a little order, please? I call our next contributor, the co-leader of the Social Democrats, Deputy Catherine Murphy.