Léiríonn an taighde ón Choimisiúin Tithíochta go dtiteann spriocanna an Rialtais na mílte teach gann ón riachtanas tithíochta gach bliain. Tá teipthe ar a phlean. Caithfidh an Rialtas cúrsaí a athrú. Mura ndéanann sé sin, is é an rud atá i ndán do mhuintir na tíre seo ná géarchéim bhuan tithíochta atá ag dul in olcas. The Government's housing policy is pushing more families into homelessness, pushing up rents and house prices, forcing more and more of our young people to consider emigrating, damaging public confidence and undermining our economy. It is reported in today's edition of The Irish Times that unpublished research by the Housing Commission has found that the number of new build homes that will be needed is between 42,000 and 62,000 per year and yet this Government's failed housing plan only targets 33,000 homes per year - a plan destined to fail and a plan planning to fail. The targets in the Government's housing plan have been widely criticised not just by Sinn Féin but by industry and academic experts and now the plan has been fatally undermined by the very housing commission established by the Government.

The implications of this for struggling renters and those struggling to buy a home are very stark. The Government's housing plan is not failing on its own terms, but it is destined to fail. According to this research, even if the Government met its targets by 2030, there would be a shortfall of as many as 245,000 homes. That is alarming for everybody - those struggling for find affordable accommodation and those who will need affordable accommodation.

As far back as 2020, Sinn Féin argued that when pent-up demand for social and affordable housing is taken into account, the real housing demand was above 40,000 new homes per year but since then, we have had three years of Government under-supply despite continued population growth so it is obvious that the Government's housing targets need to be immediately revised significantly upwards. The current targets are not based on evidence or objective assessment of need. Instead they are the result of political manoeuvring - boasting that targets are met when the targets are clearly flawed. This must stop. Why must it stop? It is because it is too serious a matter.

Homelessness is reaching record levels with increases across every category, including children. Renters are facing extortionate rents with no capacity to save and little hope of ever owning their own home. According to the State of the Nation poll carried out by Virgin Media, more than half of renters now worry that they will not be able to pay their rent in the next 12 months. House prices have smashed Celtic tiger peaks with those struggling to get a foot on the property ladder now doubting if they will ever own their home. This is draining the hope and harming the life prospects of many of our people. A survey found that 92% of 18 to 24-year-olds now fear they will never be able to buy their own home. This is what our young people are thinking. No wonder that half of young Irish adults are considering emigration beaten down as they are by high living costs and the Government's housing crisis that is never ending.

The Government must change course and commit to revising these figures immediately. Otherwise it is condemning Irish people to a worsening and permanent housing crisis. Will the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage publish the findings of the Housing Commission's research that pointed out the fatal flaws in the Government's plan? Will the Government immediately revise its inadequate and deeply flawed housing targets? Will it give responsibility for verifying annually, reviewing and publishing data on housing need to a fully independent group that would include the ESRI and the Housing Agency?

Be very careful not to categorise a target as a limit on ambition. Of course, we want to smash those targets. All of us in this House want our younger people to be able to get a home and raise a family. This concern is not an exclusive commodity. It belongs to everyone. We are committed to doing everything we can.

We had a target last year of 24,600 houses. An hour ago, the CSO came out with the figures for last year. The figure was not 24,600; it was 29,851. This is way higher and I would like it to go even higher because we have a real problem that we must address but we should be honest and accurate about what is happening.

The report from the Housing Commission was commissioned by the Government. We asked for it. We are the people who brought forward that analysis. The commission will presents its work in July as part of getting the analysis right to get the solutions right. We will need to do more and go further and higher because more people are coming into the country than were expected. The commission's analysis relates to 2050 while the Housing for All targets relate to 2030 so the Deputy needs to be careful that he is not comparing apples and oranges. Of course we must go higher than that 33,000 limit. The question is how do we do it and the quality of the housing. This is about housing in the right place. It ain't just a numbers game. We need to make sure we follow through on the national planning framework so we build new communities with high-quality housing. This is important along with the numbers.

One of the key vehicles for delivering it is the Land Development Agency because the State will have to take a bigger role. As I understand it, Sinn Féin opposed the Land Development Agency and would get rid of it. This would be a mistake because the Land Development Agency provides a mechanism whereby we can use public land to develop cost-rental housing that is in the right place and is high-quality and lower-cost with a saving of 30%. Sinn Féin would throw that away straightaway if it was in Government. I fear what this would do to the delivery of housing numbers. Deputy Ó Broin is nodding. He agrees Sinn Féin would get rid of the Land Development Agency. How then could you get access to and use lands in Dublin Port or at Heuston Station?

The Land Development Agency cannot get these lands. It does not have the power to get these lands.

Yes we can and we will.

When?

I presume we agree that cost rental is one of the main parts of the solution - one of the main parts of ramping up the numbers. The Land Development Agency is perfectly suited and is the right agency to deliver that sort of expansion. There will be no shortage of funding and ambition. It takes time and is not easy with the cost of building having gone up. We can bring it down by using the Land Development Agency on public land as well as the private sector. We need so many different parts of the solution and that is what we are committed to in Housing for All.

Project Tosaigh, which involves €0.5 billion, will help make that happen. In instances where the market is failing and where those build-to-rent apartments, particularly in the centre of our towns and cities are not going to built, I believe we should step in and take on that development and not be afraid of the State doing more.

When?

Today.

Deputy Gould would probably object to it.

Deputy Gould is not yet leader of his party.

Nobody disagrees about the scale and need for urgency but having increased delivery last year beyond the target, I would like to see us do the same every year of this Government's tenure and into the tenure of the next Government because the Housing for All strategy is the correct way to address the problem.

The Minister, Deputy Ryan, said money is not an issue and in fairness, it might not be because of the money allocated by these Houses to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, he could not even spend €1 billion, which was the amount that was unspent in housing last year. A total of 2,500 fewer social houses than what was promised last year were delivered. This is the record of this Government.

The Government set up this commission. It should have looked at housing need before it came out with its flawed plan. What Sinn Féin, academics and researchers have been telling it, namely, that the numbers are not adequate, has now been proven. The Housing Commission is saying the Government is way off target when it comes to what is needed. The target needs to be between 42,000 and 62,000 every year.

The problem, which is so serious, is that this Government is planning to fail. The consequences of this will be desperate. Half of young people are planning to emigrate while others are locked into spiralling rents they cannot afford in a cost-of-housing crisis. Thousands upon thousands of people are living in emergency accommodation, which is becoming a permanent feature of this Government.

Does the Government now accept that the targets it has set in Housing for All are fatally flawed on the basis of the research by the Housing Commission and that they need to be immediately revised upwards and delivered on?

Hear, hear.

That analysis is for the years to 2050. Ours is to 2030.

Every year.

We absolutely need to go further because there are more people coming into our country and the likely change in household characteristics means that we should err on the side of more. Deputy Doherty says we are planning to fail. That is not true. One of the biggest problems is people objecting to planning.

Like Sinn Féin's guys.

Talk to An Taisce.

One of the biggest problems is that one cannot get projects delivered quickly because every time we submit applications, particularly in areas closer to the centre where the density is slightly higher, then there are objections in the planning system.

That is statistically not true. There are 90,000-----

They come from councillors right across the country in many instances because it is not always popular, it is not always the easy answer and people do not necessarily always want change when it comes to their own local areas.

The Minister is deflecting and distracting from his own failure.

Regarding how we speed things up, lack of finance will not be an issue for the State. The State may have to do more because with the high interest rates, the private sector will not be able to do as much.

The Government is not spending the money.

The Government is not meeting its targets.

Please stop interrupting the Minister.

The delivery requires support at council level right across the country-----

Agreed.

-----for the planning urgency we need to deliver the housing. No party in this House can point fingers at anyone else about this.

The Minister should look around himself.

Planning is not the problem. Lack of Government delivery is the problem.

A little order, please.

Can we stop all of this back and forth, please? Let us conduct ourselves properly.