I call Deputy Ivana Bacik.

Everyone should have a home and far too many people in Ireland today do not. Housing must be a key priority for the Government in next week's budget because housing is the civil rights issue of this generation.

Hear, hear.

Indeed, it is affecting every generation and community. It is why we are seeing students marching today with the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, and calling for an increase in student accommodation. It is why we are all hearing from employers who cannot recruit staff, schools that have teacher shortages and hospitals that cannot retain healthcare workers. This is because of the housing crisis across the country. Yet in this housing crisis, the Government has allowed a culture to embed in our urban centres whereby we see the blight and scourge of dereliction and vacancy taking hold and becoming embedded. The Government is not doing enough to address this. In some cases, the State is even contributing to dereliction and vacancy.

This week we saw an investigation by Ferghal Blaney of the Irish Mirror, which established that, shockingly, the HSE owns more than 250 empty buildings across the country. I raised this issue with the Taoiseach yesterday. In my constituency, these buildings include Baggot Street hospital, Bride Street health centre, Castle Street clinic and part of the old Meath Street hospital. These are properties which, as the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has said, could be repurposed to enable accommodation for healthcare workers and nurses struggling with the double whammy of a cost-of-living and housing crisis. We are also seeing other Government agencies in this situation. I am thinking of Department of Defence housing and barracks across the country that could be repurposed in a student accommodation crisis to provide much-needed housing and homes for students.

When I raised this issue with the Taoiseach yesterday, he acknowledged that under the Housing for All policy there has been an insufficient reduction in the number of HSE-owned properties allowed to lie vacant. I agree with him that the reduction has been insufficient, but, frankly, the attitude of Government agencies and Departments to their own land and buildings shows a disrespect for those people at the sharp end of the housing crisis. I refer to the students marching today who cannot find accommodation near their colleges, the families languishing on waiting lists and social housing lists at a time when more than 3,500 social housing units lie empty, working adults are stuck in their childhood bedrooms well into their 30s and 40s and, of course, the nearly 13,000 people who under the Taoiseach's watch are accessing emergency accommodation because they are homeless. We need to do more.

In Dublin Bay South, the Labour Party has been seeking to bring Baggot Street hospital back into use but we have received very little by way of positive engagement on this issue from the HSE. The sort of obfuscation we have got from the HSE shows a contempt for elected representatives and it is an affront to everybody affected by the housing crisis. How does the Government propose to address the vacancy and dereliction issue, which should be one key way to address the housing crisis? Our national government should be leading from the front on this aspect. What is the scale of the vacancy and dereliction problem in the property portfolios of State Departments and public bodies? Will the Government introduce a more co-ordinated push on vacancy and on bringing buildings back into use as housing for students, nurses and others who are so desperate for housing? Will the Taoiseach introduce this from central government?

The Deputy is absolutely correct about one thing, which is that employers are struggling to recruit and retain staff. It is the case in the public sector and in the private sector, in big companies and small companies and in well-paid jobs and poorly paid jobs. The main reason for this is full employment. The unemployment rate in Ireland stands at or around 4%, and most of the people unemployed are in between jobs. In fact, many economists say we are now beyond full employment, and this is the context in which employers are struggling to recruit and retain staff. This is the main reason, albeit not the only reason.

Turning to vacancy, the Deputy mentioned vacant social housing. Roughly 2% of our social housing stock is vacant and most of that is because the buildings are being renovated, are between tenants or are earmarked for demolition as part of regeneration. It will always be the case that 1% or 2% of social housing properties are vacant.

For the-----

The Deputy will have an opportunity to ask a question and I promise not to interrupt him when he is asking it.

Turning to the HSE specifically, my Department chairs the State lands and property subgroup, which monitors the progress being made on this issue and the actions being taken by the HSE and other agencies and Departments to transfer State lands to the Land Development Authority, LDA. There are 26 sites that are of ongoing interest to local authorities and are ready to progress to the next stages of investigation and determination. Every effort is being made to identify State properties and lands that can be repurposed to increase the supply of housing over the long term. To give some good examples, Fingal County Council is currently refurbishing 12 derelict cottages on St. Ita's hospital campus in Portrane to bring them into use as social housing. St. Kevin's hospital in Cork has been transferred to LDA ownership and the construction of 265 social and affordable homes on this public land has commenced, and the first will be ready for occupation in 2025. This is, therefore, very much something the Government is working on, prioritising and taking action on.

I represent the Labour Party, the party of work and jobs, so there is no need to lecture our party on employment and full employment or even on being beyond full employment. Clearly, however, what is holding back the creation of jobs here now is the lack of availability of housing. It is holding back delivery of our public services, like education and healthcare, and is holding back our students who are trying to find somewhere close to their places of study where they can live in security. They cannot find it, and this is why they are marching today. Addressing vacancy and dereliction, particularly in public-owned buildings, should be the low-hanging fruit to be tackled and one way to address the housing crisis we are currently facing.

Last night, I hosted a public meeting in Rathmines with architect Duncan Stewart and local Labour Party representatives. People there had travelled from all over Dublin because they felt so passionately about the need to see concerted Government action to tackle the scourge of vacancy and dereliction across their communities. I say this because we are seeing it in every urban centre. What we are not seeing is sufficient urgency and ambition from the Government to tackle this issue. The Taoiseach has given a few positive local examples, and these are welcome, of where buildings are being brought back into use. I am aware efforts are under way in Dublin City Council to do the same. What we are lacking, however, is a concerted, central campaign from central government to bring State-owned properties back into use for accommodation for students, nurses and workers-----

The time is up, Deputy, please.

-----who simply cannot afford a place they can call home now.

The approach we are taking to vacancy is one of carrot and stick. On one hand, we have, for example, grants that people can avail of to bring old buildings back into use. There are 4,000 applications in for that scheme already. We also set up a fund of €150 million in order that local authorities can purchase vacant properties and bring those back into use. This is now happening all over the country. We are also transferring State-owned properties to the LDA in order that they can be developed for use for housing and other things. On the other hand, there is the stick approach. There is the vacant property tax, which will be coming into effect over the course of the next few months, the derelict sites levies and actions such as that. I think we are starting to see this move around the country, or, at least, I certainly am. It is not to the extent that I would wish to see it, but I am seeing it happen on the ground now and it is very encouraging.

Turning to the Labour Party being the party of work, that is fair enough. That is how it sees itself, but it has never achieved full employment while in government. We have. It is this Government that has brought about full employment. It is this Government that has brought about very significant increases in the national minimum wage and the move to a living wage.

The great economic work of Fianna Fáil.

It is this Government that brought in statutory sick pay.

Who is going to bring that up?

I thank the Taoiseach.

It is this Government that brought in parental leave. We have a much better record when it comes to employment and workers' rights than the Labour Party ever does on any objective analysis.

Every single one of them.

Do the analysis.

Deputies, please. I call Deputy Peadar Tóibín.

It was the Taoiseach's party's partner in government that wrecked the economy and brought about huge unemployment in the country.

Who is the greatest misleader now?

Deputies, please.