The Tánaiste gave an interview at the weekend that caused a lot of anger. He said young people considering emigrating because of the extortionate housing costs could find the grass is always greener. He said if they go to a successful busy city, they will find the same high rents as here but the rents could be lower if they went to "a very rural area or a third or fourth tier city".

Does the Tánaiste know we have the highest housing costs in the EU? Housing costs here are an astonishing 88.5% higher than the EU average. Unless the Tánaiste considers places like Paris and Rome fourth tier, he does not know what he is talking about.

Since he made those comments, young people living abroad have reacted with utter astonishment. Today's Irish Independent contains interviews with five young people living all over the world who were stunned by the Tánaiste's remarks. Evan McGloughlin, who is aged 24, said he has doubled his standard of living and halved his living costs by moving to Barcelona and 22-year-old Caitlin Grant is doing a masters in the Netherlands and her rent in a house share is €365 a month. Meanwhile the Group Chat podcast was inundated with stories of young people living abroad who were outraged by what the Tánaiste had to say. One contributor living in Berlin said the latest housing innovation in Dublin is shed-sits - sheds where the rent is more than €1,000 per month - and I could go on.

The latest daft.ie report shows that the average rent across the country is nearly €1,700 per month and a staggering €2,300 per month in Dublin. Those prices are unaffordable to 90% of workers. What will the Government do about it? The Government has made many promises on housing and it has broken almost every single one. House prices are higher than they have ever been. Rents have never been higher and homelessness has never been higher. We are dreading the updated homelessness figures tomorrow, which are likely to show another record increase. Increasingly, children are growing up in homelessness. On every objective metric when it comes to housing, the Government is failing miserably. No amount of gaslighting by the Tánaiste or other Ministers will change that.

Yesterday he talked about a whole-of-government approach being needed to tackle this housing crisis. He said it is the role of the role of the Department of the Taoiseach to drive that forward. Given that the Tánaiste will soon be Taoiseach and leading that Department, I want to ask him a few questions on his approach. What specifically will he do as Taoiseach to drive the Government's response to the housing crisis? What will he expect from other Departments to address the housing emergency? When can we expect to see results in lower homelessness and more affordable rents and housing prices? Is the Tánaiste saying the current Taoiseach has not been doing enough to deliver on housing?

I do not think it is correct to say what the Deputy said about every metric. I will just mention two, as she raised metrics. We anticipate this year between 20,000 and 28,000 new homes being built. That does not include derelict homes being brought back into use and student accommodation. Approximately 26,000 to 28,000 new houses and apartments will be built in Ireland this year. That is the highest in ten years and we need to increase that figure again next year. Although we have a long way to go, the most encouraging metric probably is that in the past 12 months alone 16,000 individuals or young couples have bought their first home. That is the highest in 15 years and 15 years is a long time. Just in the past month, more than 2,000 young people, individuals and couples, got mortgage approval. Those are some of the metrics that are at least going in the right direction, although by no means far enough or fast enough in my view.

I think the Taoiseach is doing an excellent job and I think the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is also doing an excellent job. It is the role of the Taoiseach to co-ordinate and accelerate Government action. I absolutely want to see Housing for All implemented as fast as possible. No matter who is in that office, part of the role of the Taoiseach is to make sure that the whole of government is seized of the housing crisis, and prioritises action and solutions because the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and his Department cannot do it on their own. It requires the Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform, and Finance to do the right things and it also requires other Departments to play the role they need to play, particularly with the provision of infrastructure to service sites. That is the impetus. That is happening and needs to continue.

The Deputy mentioned high rents. We are doing three things on high rents to help people who are renting. First, we are scaling up cost rental, a new form of housing initiated by the previous Government but being realised by this Government, where the Government provides rental properties to people who do not qualify for social housing at below market rate. It works very well in many European cities, but is only getting started in Ireland. It will definitely be part of our housing mix into the future. The second is a tax credit for people who are renting. That will be more than people think it will be because it is being paid for two years - this year and next year. That will mean €1,000 into the pockets of a single renter in a few weeks. For a couple renting it will be €2,000 and for three people sharing the same house, it will be €3,000 among them. In the vast majority of cases, that will be the best part of a month’s rent back into their pockets, which is not insignificant.

We have also introduced the rent pressure zone. It is useful to look at the daft.ie analysis in detail. That shows that for the vast majority of existing renters - maybe 75% - rents rose by 2.5% last year, not 10% or 14%.

I did not hear what the approach will be. The Tánaiste needs to tell us what that approach will be and what difference it will make. Is he aware that commencements are down by 30% in the past three months? Only yesterday there was a report about a reduction in the number of mortgage approvals, which is not a metric I want to see. What does the Tánaiste mean when he talks about the difference that a whole-of-government approach will make?

A large number of planning permissions are not being activated, which only increases the value of the land without seeing delivery of housing. I believe that on Saturday we will see quite a lot of people out on the streets for the Raise the Roof rally that will take place in Dublin, starting in Parnell Square at 1 p.m. People have been pushed to the point where they have lost hope. Does the Tánaiste regret making those comments that were so ill-informed and have so angered people who can clearly show they are not true?

I referred to two cities - Sydney, where the average house price is AUD1 million, and rents in New York. The Deputy has represented what I said in a way that was not said and certainly not the way I intended it.

I believe Ireland is a great country in which to live. That is not just my opinion. The United Nations, which assesses these things objectively, put Ireland in the top ten countries in the world in which to live out of 200 countries. Everyone's lived experience is different and people travel abroad for all sorts of different reasons. I would not discount for a second anyone's lived experience or dispute the examples the Deputy gave earlier, but I do not think any individual's lived experience is everyone's. I need to look at things in the round. I see a country with thousands of people coming here every year from England and Europe to live. European citizens have 27 countries to choose from and tens of thousands come here. Even when it is narrowed down to Irish citizens, more Irish citizens return home every year than leave. It might not be true every year, but it has been true for most recent years. How does that fit in with the Deputy's narrative?

It depends on the individual’s lived experience.

Of course, it does; everyone's experience is different.

Many young people will not share that lived experience.