Fine Gael has been in power now for more than 12 years. In this time we have seen Government make decision after decision that have escalated the housing crisis into a full-blown emergency. Rents are out of control and a whole generation is locked out of homeownership. Homelessness has reached a record level that we could only have imagined.

This is the dire situation seven years after the Minister opposite, when he was the Minister with responsibility for housing, said the Government would end homelessness. It failed because, even with a significant recovery in public finances, the Government refused to provide the necessary investment in housing. Instead of building homes, Fine Gael pushed thousands of people into the private rental market. That is what has brought us to where we are today. The problem then and now is not public finances but the attitude of the Government. The Government is the problem.

The housing insecurity that renters live with every day is highlighted by the colossal increase in the numbers now contacting housing charity Threshold. In lifting the eviction ban without any protections in place, the Government has chosen to make the fear of losing one's home a reality for thousands of renters. These are people who work hard, pay their rent and do everything to build a decent life. They are being robbed of the roof over their heads, not through any fault of their own but by way of a cruel Government decision.

Eviction notices are landing every day and the Government has no plan, no safety net and no intention other than to dig in. Cá bhfuil daoine ceaptha dul? Chuireamar an cheist sin ar an Taoiseach, ar an Tánaiste, agus ar an Aire Tithíochta, Rialtais Áitiúil agus Oidhreachta agus níor thug aon duine freagra inchreidte. An féidir leis an Aire atá i láthair an cheist sin a fhreagairt?

Yesterday I put four stories of those facing eviction to the Taoiseach. We have received countless more. I want the Minister to hear what these people have to say. Eamon writes:

My son, his wife and their three children are to be evicted in June. They have nowhere to go. My son works very hard, but he still can’t afford to buy a house. It’s shocking what’s happening to hard working people in this country.

Margaret says:

My daughter has two kids. She received her eviction notice. She has to be out on the day of her baby’s first birthday. They can’t find another place. What are they going to do?

Colm tells us:

My landlord has already mentioned her nephew needs the house we are in. I am waiting in fear of an eviction notice. The street is the only other place left.

Rebecca says:

We lost the home we rented for thirteen years to a no-fault eviction. It was the most frightening and humiliating experience of our lives. I know exactly how other families are feeling.

I could go on; we could be here until tomorrow. That is the reality of what people are going through. These families, like so many others, have run out of housing options. Rented accommodation cannot be got for love nor money. Emergency accommodation is maxed out in many areas. People wait years for social housing. Where are they meant to go? We have asked the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and none of them has given a credible answer. Can the Minister answer that question today?

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of housing again, as she does most weeks. The Government is more than aware of the pressures on many families across the country. We made a decision that extending the ban on evictions would make the problem worse, not better, and I believe that was the right decision to make. We are putting billions of euro into ensuring we provide the housing supply that is needed for families who need to find sustainable, secure accommodation, whether that is to purchase affordably or to rent.

Last year, the country built almost 30,000 houses, an increase of 45% on the previous year. Last year, we provided social houses for more than 10,000 people. That was also a significant increase on the year before. This year, we are going to do better again. I am not suggesting that the delivery of social and affordable houses and cost-rental accommodation is happening at a fast enough pace right now but it is accelerating all of the time. That is the answer to the question. We need more supply.

When the Deputy raises these questions week after week, I believe I am entitled to raise her credibility and that of her party in relation to the delivery of all types of housing tenure. In Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin has had the two most recent housing Ministers. Does the House know how many social houses were built and completed in the past year in Northern Ireland? It was fewer than 900. In this jurisdiction, almost 8,000 new social houses were delivered last year. When I became Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government a number of years ago, local authorities in the previous year had built fewer than 100 new social houses. Now, we are seeing 7,500 to 8,000 houses being built and we will deliver significantly more than that this year.

This is a complex and difficult challenge. I know that many households are worried and concerned. There are far too many people homeless in this country. We are responding by increasing supply, which is the answer. The Deputy could help by preventing her party’s councillors across the country from opposing and frustrating developments.

She could also be a bit more honest in respect of her party’s performance when it has been in government and held housing ministries. In Northern Ireland, the figure of fewer than 900 social houses for last year is a decrease on the previous year of 36%. The number of building starts last year was just over 1,700, a decrease of 29%. Northern Ireland, where Sinn Féin has some sway, is seeing a reduction of approximately 30% in the delivery of social housing year on year, while we in this jurisdiction are seeing an increase in housing delivery of approximately 45% year on year. The Deputy might take a look at her own party’s performance before she starts lecturing this side of the House on housing delivery.

Do as I say, not as I do.

The critical distinction between here and the North-----

-----is the British Government.

-----is that here, public finance is not the issue and there it is. There, the block grant and the Tories are an issue. I do not have the space, a Cheann Comhairle, to elaborate beyond that.

Clearly.

Fine Gael has been in government now for 12 years and the Minister has sat at the Cabinet table, if I am correct, for the entirety of that time. When he was the housing Minister there were 5,000 souls, God help them, homeless. There are now 12,000. We have record house prices and record, extortionate rents. We have a Government which brags of its largesse and the billions coming into the Exchequer and we have an entire generation which cannot put a roof over its head. That is on you.

Hear, hear.

The Minister says the Government has everything sorted. I told him about Eamon, his son and his three children. I told him about Margaret, her daughter and her two children. I told him about Colm. These are real people who have nowhere to go, unless I am mistaken and the Minister actually has an answer to that.

I put it to the Minister again. For families who will face eviction, where do they go?

We have, along with the decisions of recent months, made a decision to increase the number of social housing acquisitions by 1,500 this year and supply an additional 1,000 homes through targeted leasing initiatives this year and next. We have amended the capital advance leasing facility used by approved housing bodies so they can provide more homes faster. There is a long list after that.

The Deputy talks about a generation who cannot put a roof over their heads but yesterday her party introduced a motion to this House to scrap the first-time buyer's grant, which has provided 38,000 young families with the ability to get on the housing ladder. We are a Government which believes in homeownership whereas the Deputy wants to be in a government that will focus solely on one kind of tenure, which is social housing.

What about affordable housing?

We believe in both.

You believe in neither.

We believe people who want to buy their own homes need a leg up from the State to do that. The Deputy does not believe that. We believe in affordable, cost-rental and social housing. We added over 10,000 properties to the social housing stock last year, unlike Sinn Féin’s performance in Northern Ireland.

The housing disaster is causing devastation among workers and families all over the country. Increasingly it is an enormous problem for businesses too. Every major business group has now pointed to housing being their most serious concern. Chambers Ireland recently warned that the acute shortage of housing was causing companies to take drastic action. It said big businesses are now considering buying up entire housing estates for their workers. IBEC has identified the problem as being not just a chronic lack of supply, but a crisis in the supply of affordable homes. This affordability crisis, according to IBEC, is now a critical barrier to the continued growth and development of business investment and expansion. IBEC is dead right. House prices and rents have never been higher. Workers on average incomes can no longer afford to buy or rent their own homes. Many people who are renting are barely scraping by. Workers are increasingly spending upwards of 40% or even 50% of their take-home pay to keep a roof over their heads. This is unsustainable at any time but in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, it is creating huge hardship.

The reality is that housing is now affordable only for those on the highest incomes. Workers on average incomes cannot afford to buy a home in Dublin for €500,000. They cannot afford annual rents around the country of more than €20,000 either. These sums are astronomical and far out of reach for workers and families. They see no signs of help from the Government. There are no signs of hope either.

The Government claims it is doing something about the affordability crisis but it is just more spin. During ten years of Fine Gael Governments, not a single affordable home was delivered. Last year, this Government managed to deliver only 1,700 affordable homes out of a target of 4,100. That is barely 40%. The Minister recently told the American Chamber of Commerce that housing was the Government’s biggest domestic policy priority and the issue was about supply. He has to recognise we need not just supply but affordable supply.

I do not think even the multinationals believe the Minister's assurances on housing any more. They, like us, have listened to him make the same broken promises for years. Is the Minister aware of any businesses that are considering buying entire housing estates for their workers? Does he agree that the housing affordability crisis is the most pressing concern for businesses, as well as workers and families, and that it is not just about supply but also about the affordability of that supply?

The first thing I want to address is the Deputy’s statement that multinationals do not believe us any more. The relationship between this Government and companies providing foreign direct investment in Ireland has never been stronger. That is why we are seeing the kind of corporation tax revenue streams we see this year and which are predicted for next year and the year after. Ireland is a country in which multinationals have extraordinary confidence. The faith they have in what this Government is doing around enterprise policy has never been stronger. We now have more than 300,000 people employed by US multinationals across the country, many in the county the Deputy and I come from. That is combined with the dynamic enterprise sector in Ireland of Irish companies that are growing and expanding. The combined clients of the IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland employ well more than 500,000 people.

Housing is an issue but the multinational sector is talking to us and believes what we are doing and saying on housing. We are dramatically increasing supply. That is the answer here. We are also for the first time in decades introducing real affordable housing schemes. For the first time ever in Ireland we are introducing cost-rental schemes at scale. It is only starting. The Deputy is right that we did not meet certain targets last year but these are brand-new types of schemes with new legislation required and delivered to ensure they stand up. The Deputy will see a dramatic acceleration this year of affordable housing schemes. I can name them: in Ardrostig in Bishopstown, in Fingal, in Athlone and more besides. The Deputy cannot judge the delivery of affordable housing on one year.

You have been in government 12 years.

These projects are getting under way and being accelerated. Through a combination of social housing, affordable housing, affordable rental, cost rental, supported rental accommodation and private housing delivery, we need to get to between 40,000 and 50,000 housing units per year. We know that. We need to be above 10,000 social houses per year and there needs to be a significant mix of affordable housing, but the statement Deputy Cairns makes that nobody can afford to buy a house, when she knows the stats show 38,000 people have bought their first home on the back of a first-time buyer’s grant I introduced as housing Minister, is misrepresenting the facts. We have real challenges on housing but we are providing real solutions which are accelerating year on year.

I did not say no one could afford a home but that only those on the highest incomes can do so. I am not judging the Minister on one year in government but on 12 years of Fine Gael Governments. He was Minister for housing during that time. The criticisms of the Government’s housing delivery are not just coming from the Social Democrats and other Opposition parties; they are coming from business groups. The Minister saying they have confidence in housing policy does not make it true. They are looking at the Government’s broken promises year after year. It did not reach 40% of its affordable housing target. Each and every one of them has said housing is the biggest challenge they face. The disaster we are dealing with is the cumulative result of more than a decade of Fine Gael failure in housing and there are no signs of that situation improving.

Since Fianna Fáil and the Green Party joined Fine Gael in government, it cannot even do the bare minimum, which is spending its budget. More than €1 billion was left unspent during the worst housing disaster in the history of the State. Meanwhile, there are more than 100,000 vacant homes across the country and the Government refused to adopt the Social Democrats’ motion this morning to introduce a punitive tax on those homes and help to bring them back to use. I do not think there is anyone left in the country who has faith in the Government's housing policy. The Minister saying business groups have faith in it does not make it true. How can they?

Businesses are voting with their feet on Ireland and are coming here in bigger numbers than ever before. What is the Deputy talking about?

I am saying they are concerned about housing.

Of course they are concerned about housing and so are we.

You just told me they were not.

No. I am saying they have faith in this Government, and the proof of that is in the numbers. Of course they have a concern around housing. So do we and so does the Deputy. The question is how we respond to that. The Deputy casually forgets when my party came into government and where the country was at that point: under IMF control in terms of finances. We had a completely broken property market, where virtually no houses, except the odd one-off house, were being built around the country. Over a decade and slightly more, we have had to rebuild a housing market, banking system and regulatory model and, so far, we are delivering 30,000 housing units per year.

This is significantly more than was achieved over recent years and we will go beyond it this year. A big portion of this will be affordable housing as is needed, and of course it is-----

Twelve years.

-----and social housing. Deputies selectively quote targets that are not being reached, but what about the target of close to 30,000 houses, which is significantly above the target that was set of just over 24,000 for last year, which was the expectation? On the biggest target of all, namely the overall delivery of housing, we are way ahead of schedule and we need to be. Let us look at this in the round and quote all of the statistics rather than hand-picking individual ones.