Before we move on, cuirim céad míle fáilte roimh na scoláirí óga thuas staighre atá ag éisteacht linn. Bogaimid ar aghaidh anois go dtí ceannaire Pháirtí an Lucht Oibre, an Teachta Bacik.

Cuirim fáilte roimh ár gcuairteoirí freisin.

Last week, I raised some stories about the human face of the housing crisis. They were stories about people at the sharp end of the housing crisis such as the 27 renters who were renting premises within a stone's throw of where I live in the south city centre off Camden Street that was not suitable for residential accommodation. These people were renting patently unsuitable premises because they could not find and afford anywhere else. This week, we heard about a shortage of teachers, particularly in Dublin, and difficulties retaining and recruiting teachers, nurses and staff in every sector from hospitality to retail to the professions to multinationals.

The difficulty arises because people cannot get appropriate accommodation in our capital city. We have got to a point where there is now a Dublin penalty - a penalty people pay where they are seeking to work and live in Dublin but cannot afford to do so. I am hearing increasingly desperate stories of people earning what would be considered good wages who cannot afford suitable or appropriate accommodation anywhere within an easy commute of jobs in the city centre so it has become a Dublin penalty. We see the shortage of accommodation throughout the country, particularly in urban areas.

Like many colleagues, when I cycle around my constituency, I still see properties lying empty and sites undeveloped. In recent weeks, we heard from Dublin City Council that 28,000 live planning permissions in its area have not been activated. Enabling or facilitating the lying empty of premises and the non-activation of live planning permissions is fuelling the record homelessness figures that are so shameful for us all. This is what is fuelling escalating rents, lengthening housing lists and substandard living standards for so many people.

To misappropriate the phrase of the writer O. Henry, Dublin will be a great place if they ever finish it. What we are not seeing from Government is a policy that will encourage and incentivise the finishing of Dublin and ensure that people will have decent places to live in our city centre and will be able to live and work in Dublin city, in particular, but also in towns and cities around the country without paying exorbitant rents and mortgages. We know this situation has arisen because of years of reliance on a policy that has treated property as an asset for investment and that sees housing as a commodity rather than as a public good or a human right. We need to move away from that. What is the Government going to do to ensure there is a clear carrot-and-stick approach - a carrot to incentivise those who are sitting on vacant sites to build homes on them and a stick to sanction those who let sites lie idle while people queue for housing and are unable to afford to live in the city?

I thank the Deputy once again for raising this important issue. I acknowledge that the public service and many private businesses are struggling to recruit and retain staff, especially in Dublin, but also all over the country. Of course, housing is a factor in that - the high cost of housing and rent and the sheer non-availability of anywhere to rent. However, it is also appropriate to mention some of the facts. Notwithstanding all that, there are 2.55 million people at work in Ireland, more than ever was the case previously. The number of teachers employed in our education sector and the number of doctors and nurses employed in our health service is many more than it was five or ten years ago and, therefore, it is not the case that we have fewer nurses working in the public health service or fewer teachers working in the public sector than was the case five or ten years ago. Those numbers continue to increase but there is a real problem recruiting and retaining people for lots of different reasons. The availability and cost of housing are part of that.

I heard the Deputy's analysis. We should not forget that the housing assistance payment, HAP, was created by a Fine Gael-Labour Government. It was brought in when Labour was in government and it is important to acknowledge that as part of any analysis of housing. The HAP is very useful for people. A very important decision we made recently was to increase the income limits for social housing. This means more people will qualify for social housing, particularly working people who did not qualify previously because they earned a bit above the limit. More people will qualify for the HAP, which is a good thing because it will help them to pay their rent. Previously they got no help with their rent.

I agree with the Deputy in respect of sites that are not being developed and planning permissions that are not being activated. There is planning permission for approximately 70,000 new homes, most of which are apartments and most of which are in our cities. We need a carrot-and-stick approach because it is not always about the stick or the carrot. Sometimes there is a viability issue. We have introduced the derelict sites levy and will bring in the zoned land tax to tax land that is zoned and is not being developed. We are bringing in the vacant property tax so that if somebody has an empty property that is habitable, there will be an additional tax.

In terms of viability, which is the carrot, we have the Croí Cónaithe (cities) scheme to make apartment developments more viable and the grant of between €30,000 and €50,000 to help people turn derelict properties into habitable ones while the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is using government money to subsidise the building of student accommodation on campuses around the country so we are pursuing a carrot-and-stick approach where sites are not being developed and planning permissions are not being activated.

I thank the Tánaiste for the response. Labour has a proud record of seeking to deliver change to improve conditions for people and ensure we can deliver constructive ways to addresses crises that arise, particularly the housing crisis. What we sought to do with the HAP, about which he will be well aware, was to replace rent supplement, which had become a poverty trap, and to ensure a short-term way for people to address issues around housing. It was never intended to become the significant long-term issue it has become.

What we have seen over the past six years has been a failure by Government to deliver on the necessary State investment to ensure the construction of necessary social and affordable homes. What we have seen instead is an overreliance on the private sector to deliver and, as a result, this developing policy that sees housing as a commodity and an asset for investment rather than as a public good and a human right.

Can the Government reorient policy to ensure State intervention to deliver on the construction of social and affordable homes that are so badly needed for all those who are working in the public and private sector to ensure that we can see a future for the generations who are now priced out of housing, both rental and purchase?

If the Deputy examines the legislation on the HAP, she will see that it says that once people are in receipt of the payment, their housing needs are deemed to be met, they are taken off the housing list and can only be on the transfer list. That is legislation that we did together in government. I absolutely agree that HAP is not a long-term solution, and I am absolutely in favour of greater State intervention in the housing market. The Deputy may not believe that is the case, but that is the case. I am not sure that there has ever been more State intervention in the housing market than there is now. Roughly 28,000 homes will be built this year. I would say half of them are happening because of some form of State intervention, whether it is through the social housing programme. More social housing is being provided this year than probably in any year in the history of the State through various different means. Cost rental is a new form of public housing that is being provided for the first time. Other schemes include the affordable housing schemes and the help to buy scheme. If the Deputy went through those 28,000 she would see that in some form or another, State intervention is helping or causing those homes to be built. We will step that up next year and the year after; I guarantee the Deputy that.