Under a Fianna Fáil housing Minister - one from the Minister's own party - homelessness has reached record levels in the lifetime of this Government. We warned last year that the failure to extend the ban on evictions would lead to a massive increase in the number of people without a home. Sadly, that has come to pass. The September homelessness figures were published a fortnight ago, as the Dáil went into recess. Those figures showed that 12,827 people are now without a home in Ireland. Let us contrast that with the figures when the Government came to power in July 2020, when there were 8,728 people registered as homeless. In the space of just over three years, the Government has, shockingly, managed to increase homelessness by more than 4,000 women, men and children. That is a surge of almost 50%. Has the Government become desensitised to the gravity of these enormous figures? Behind every figure, there is an individual person – a woman, man or child – who has been left without a home. This is the desperate reality.

Will the Minister admit that the Government's housing policy has failed? Ministers say endlessly that we cannot build houses overnight – of course, we cannot – but across the board, the Government's actions in the past three years have undermined its stated aims of keeping people in affordable and secure homes. The Government will not act to restrict no-fault evictions to keep people in their homes. It will not act to impose a use-it-or-lose-it obligation on developers who speculate on land. That has been delayed. Just this morning, it has become clear that the Government will also not face up to its responsibility to fund local authorities to bring vacant homes back into use and provide social homes.

In oral questions to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage this morning, I raised a concerning situation, which has been brought to my attention by my Labour Party colleague, a Dublin city councillor for the south-west inner city, Darragh Moriarty. He has given me the minutes of a meeting of Dublin City Council, which show that Government funding for repairing and refurbishing empty council homes is being reduced further. Indeed, Olivia Kelly reports today in The Irish Times that council officials have confirmed that "department funding has changed ... that [the budget is] constantly coming down" for refurbishment of what are known as voids or empty local authority homes. An official has estimated that as many 220 fewer homes will be turned around as a result of a central government cut in next year's local authority budget for Dublin. The Minister should make no mistake: that is 220 fewer families in the Dublin City Council area who will be housed in a refurbished home as a result of central government cuts. If there are 220 fewer homes every year for the next three years, it will mean 660 additional families will be left to languish on the housing list. Yet, we get replies from the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and his colleagues that skirt around commenting on the figures. This morning, the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, said that funding would be available to councils. Is the Government saying that Dublin City Council is wrong? We would welcome clarification. Is this a national issue? Has the Government actually cut funding to councils to bring empty homes back into use? Can the Minister guarantee that councils in Dublin and across the country will have enough money to deliver homes for people who desperately need them in 2024?

Delivering more homes and preventing homelessness is the number one issue for this Government. It was the number one reason my party decided to go into government and sought the housing portfolio. When we look at the investment that this Government has put in place, and the three parties working together, it shows the commitment we have to ramping up as fast as we possibly can the delivery of new homes, enabling people to have a house that they can call home and, in particular, enabling them to own that home.

Every year, under the Housing for All strategy, we are seeing significant progress in regard to house builds in this country. It is not so long ago that the total number of house builds in the country was between 7,000 and 9,000 units per year. Last year, it exceeded 30,000 new homes. That included very significant investment in social homes directly built by the Government or with the support of the Government through social housing bodies. Some 10,000 homes were delivered last year, with 7,400 of them being social homes. We are going to continue to deliver that because, ultimately, it is the solution to the housing challenges we have.

In regard to the properties that are there, especially when social properties become vacant or voided, we must ensure the support is in place to make sure they come back into circulation immediately. Deputy Bacik has raised specifically an issue in regard to Dublin City Council. This year, the Government, through the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has allocated more than €4.8 million to the city council so that 445 homes can be remediated. In addition, €870,000 has been allocated for planned maintenance. Also, officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage have been in contact with Dublin City Council in an effort to identify additional units and funding requirements. Every effort will be made to support these additional requests.

It is crucial that we make sure properties are brought into circulation. That is something the Government is focusing on in terms of our social housing stock. We are also focusing on the many vacant and derelict homes that are in private stock across the country. That is why, under Housing for All, we have introduced the vacant property grant of €50,000 where a property is vacant for more than a year, to enable it to come back into circulation. It is also the reason we have introduced the derelict property grant whereby a grant of €70,000 from the Government is available, through local authorities, to bring derelict properties back into circulation. That scheme has been extended to ensure it applies to all parts of the country, whether it is a village, a town or a rural house that has been derelict or vacant, to bring them all back into circulation. The Government is working on this every day. Ultimately, in terms of addressing homelessness and bringing down rents, the key objective is to drive, as fast as we possibly can, the delivery of new houses. That is the number one objective for this Government every day, week and month.

I note recent reports that the Minister has not ruled himself out of the running as a candidate for the European Commission. It is more appropriate for the Government to focus on matters closer to home. With respect, the Minister did not answer my specific question about whether Dublin City Council's funding for restoring voids has been cut.

I appreciate that this is a bigger issue than social homes because we know there are more than 100,000 properties sitting empty, vacant and derelict across the country. It is a national scandal and a scourge. Next week, our Labour Party colleagues in the Seanad will be bringing a motion to address vacancy and dereliction and will address some of the other issues the Minister raised. Sufficient funding for local authorities to tackle voids and bring empty and derelict homes back into use and to operate the vacant and derelict sites register is a critical issue. It will be raised in the Seanad next week as well. It appears to us as if the Government is guilty of a dereliction of duty here.

It is taking a hands-off approach and washing its hands at central government level. It is blaming local authorities and placing the responsibility on them, yet not funding them adequately to deliver the refurbishments necessary to bring vacant and derelict properties back into use and put more people into the homes they so desperately need.

I do not agree with Deputy Bacik's accusation but do agree with her on the absolute importance of ensuring the properties do not go void. Once an outgoing tenant or family vacates a social property, it should be immediately brought back into circulation and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, working with the local authority, should ensure it provides the funding to achieve this. That is something we are doing every single year. At national level this year, €31 million in funding has been allocated specifically for this. The Deputy is raising a specific issue related to the Dublin City Council area. I have outlined to her that officials of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage are in contact with officials from Dublin City Council in an effort to identify additional units that have funding requirements, and they will be making every effort to support additional requests.

This is an important issue and it is being addressed on an ongoing basis alongside our work to bring new properties, social and private, into circulation for families, making sure every one of them is fully utilised.