The housing emergency has dominated life in Ireland for more than a decade. It is a story of an entire generation locked out of affordable housing and locked out of opportunity. It is a generation that works hard and does all the right things but still sees their aspirations pushed further away. Their lives are on hold and their futures are uncertain.

Over the past four days, I have received an outpouring of despair from people whose crisis housing situation is badly affecting their mental health. Here is just some of what these people had to say.

Amy told me:

I'm a [40]-year-old married nurse. We couldn't afford [to] rent anymore. We’ve had to move in with my parents to try to save for a mortgage, but [now] the cost of living [crisis] has ruined things. Only for my parents I couldn't afford to continue living. I am constantly sad and stressed.

This is Seán’s story:

I’m with my partner of over six years. We are living at home with our parents and sister in a three-[bedroom] house. No room. We want to have kids but where would we put a baby? This is not a life. We both work full time and pay our taxes. We want to start our life, but we can't. My depression is real and it's only getting worse.

Kevin said:

Myself and [my] partner are in counselling and prescribed medication for stress, depression and anxiety due to the rising prices of houses and [the struggle] to make a life while [we are still] living [with] our parents. We’re considering moving to Canada for a chance at a better life.

Edel said:

I’ve been homeless since the start of 2020. Going from house to house, room to room. We’ve lost our furniture, our clothing, and the feeling of having a home again. I’m mentally exhausted and the whole family has been dealing with tough mental health issues. This isn't normal. [This] is not right.

There is stress, anxiety, depression, medication and a housing Minister who said that we do not have a housing emergency. The Taoiseach said that his housing plan is working. He speaks of indicators of success, but each of these stories is an indicator of the Government's housing failure. I have put it to him time and again that the Government's housing targets are too low, but each time he refused to accept this fact. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has now acknowledged that the targets are wholly inadequate. Finally, last night, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, was forced to admit that the Government has been working to housing targets that are nowhere near what is needed. The truth is that this Government falls far short on planning and delivery and people are paying a heavy price. Tá an éigeandáil tithíochta ag cur isteach go mór ar mheabhairshláinte go leor daoine anois. Teastaíonn freagairt éigeandála a dhéileálann le scála na géarchéime.

The Taoiseach said housing is the number one issue for his Government. Yet, after two and half years in office, the housing emergency has only got worse. House prices, rents and homelessness are up and now people’s mental health is on the floor. That is the legacy of the Government’s housing plan.

Does the Taoiseach now accept that we have a housing emergency? When will we see housing targets that match the actual scale of this emergency? We need energy, pace and an all-of-government approach to fix housing.

I have consistently said that housing is the number one social issue facing our country and it is a priority of this Government. I also said that the Housing for All plan is the most substantive plan document detailed of any plan that has been produced by anyone in this House. No Opposition party has come near it in terms of its detail, variety, breadth and depth. The bottom line is progress has been made. However, for many people, we need to build more houses and build them faster. I have always acknowledged that.

Since this Government came to power, there has been very significant delivery. On social housing alone, more than 18,000 new social homes have been added to the social housing stock under this Government up to quarter 2 of 2022. This year we are targeting an extra 10,000 social houses between build, lease and acquisition. That is on a scale that has not been seen for decades. Not in the first two decades of this century has that scale of social housing been seen. Progress is being made. However, I am very clear that we need to make more progress than that.

On affordable housing schemes, very significant initiatives have been taken. I refer to Sinn Féin's alternative budget, for example.

The Deputy has talked about people who are distressed and I acknowledge that people are in distress. However, under its alternative budget, Sinn Féin would have abolished the help-to-buy scheme, which has supported over 35,000 home buyers. Those are ordinary young people who wanted to buy their first homes. Sinn Féin would scrap the first home scheme, which has been introduced in recent months. It provides an equity share up to 30% in a new property. There are already 640 approvals under that scheme. What would Deputy McDonald say to the Jameses, Marys and Johns who have got those approvals? What would she say to the 35,000 people who got help under the help-to-buy scheme? Sinn Féin would also eliminate the new vacant and derelict property grants of €50,000. There are 419 applicants for that scheme. We are expanding that scheme to rural areas and city centres. Sinn Féin would scrap that scheme despite the fact it will help many people.

Through affordable housing schemes and Croí Cónaithe, we are making significant gains in respect of affordable housing. That is the bottom line. Sinn Féin has now become the party of catastrophe. That is how it labels itself. I have to put it to the Deputy that if she is sincere in her description of the housing situation as an emergency - and I am saying it is the biggest social issue we have - she must reconcile how the Sinn Féin Party can vote against 1,200 social, affordable and private homes in Ballymastone and Donabate. Some 253 of those homes were intended as social homes and another 253 were to be affordable homes. How could Sinn Féin vote against 853 public homes on Oscar Traynor Road in November 2021 if it is the emergency Deputy McDonald says it is? How could Sinn Féin vote against what was then 768 homes in O'Devaney Gardens in 2019? There are now 1,000 homes, including 275 social homes and 248 affordable homes.

Let us think about the language that Deputy McDonald has been using for the last number of months on housing, "emergency" and "catastrophe", and yet she herself objected to 1,600 apartments on the grounds of Clonliffe College, 10% of which are social housing.

Ten per cent.

Deputy Gould, it is no laughing matter. If this is described as a catastrophe, then all bets are off in respect of how we provide housing in this country. That is the point I am making. Sinn Féin cannot play it both ways. You cannot say in this House it is a catastrophe and in another chamber vote against housing and housing provision. It is time to get off the fence. I make that point sincerely. I do not think the Deputy can reconcile those two stances.

The Government is making progress. We will exceed our targets for this year. I repeat that we will build more than 24,500 houses this year. We need to do more and build more rapidly.

It is a measure of how far astray the Government has gone and how badly it is failing that the Taoiseach relies on misinformation and attacks across the floor-----

Hear, hear.

-----rather than acknowledging in the first instance the very real mental health consequences of what is a housing catastrophe and emergency. The Minister cannot even accept that it is an emergency. Does the Taoiseach accept that it is an emergency?

The record of the Government, despite the Taoiseach's bluster, is that house prices, rents and homelessness are up. I will try to be of some assistance to the Taoiseach by telling him that the answer to this catastrophe is not to produce houses and accommodation that are way out of the reach and price range of ordinary and average workers. The answer is not to incentivise and roll out the red carpet to international funds, vulture or cuckoo funds, call them what you will funds-----

Hear, hear.

-----that build big, fancy apartment blocks in areas such as those I represent. People with no homes look at those apartment blocks, say they are nice and that they will never live in them because they cannot afford to do so and certainly will never own a home there. That is not the answer.

I asked about the targets. Can we please have clarity on that matter?

The country is on track to exceed the Housing For All target for this year of 24,600. Close to 28,000 homes were built in the 12 months to September 2022. There were nearly 21,000 houses alone built in the first nine months of this year. That already exceeds the total for 2021, which was 20,000. We are projected to reach more than 26,000 homes by the end of the year. It will be the highest number of homes built since 2008. There were more than 16,000 first-time buyers in the past 12 months. That is the highest number since 2007 and it represents 33% of all home purchases, up from 25% in 2015. Construction of 27,400 homes commenced in the year to September alone. More than 167,000 people are now working in construction. That is 20,000 more than pre-pandemic levels and 40,000 more than this time last year. Objectively, people have to acknowledge that progress is being made.

The targets are wrong, according to the Department and the Minister.

The Deputy is at it again, trying to interrupt. She should allow me to respond to her sound bites and sloganeering and the absence of substance that comes across time and again. The bottom line is that we have to do more than what we have done already. Let us be very clear that we are making progress. The bottom line is that the Deputy is saying that the figures need to increase and we should be building 40,000 homes per year. My point is that we cannot build 40,000 homes per year if the Deputy herself objects to 1,400 units in her own constituency and her party objects to thousands of houses across the board.