Ar fud an Stáit, inár gcathracha, ár mbailte agus ár sráidbhailte, tá daoine ró-eolach ar an bhfadhb ó thaobh tithíochta foilmhe agus tréigthe. Léiríonn sonraí atá eisithe ag an Roinn Tithíochta, Rialtais Áitiúil agus Oidhreachta nach bhfuil ach 21 deontas tarraingthe anuas faoin deontas athchóirithe do thithe folmha le bliain go leith. Níl fiú amháin deontas amháin tarraingthe anuas i mo chontae féin i nDún na nGall agus is sampla eile é seo den dóigh ina láimhseálann an Rialtas an cheist seo. Tá go leor cainte ach níl na torthaí le feiceáil.

This week, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, published his housing progress report and he need not have bothered because the progress has been glacial. The reality is that the Minister’s party and Fine Gael have created the housing crisis, and the longer they remain in office, the worse things get for ordinary people. That is the reality of the situation. All of the schemes they have introduced are failing to meet their own targets.

The Minister's housing progress report was notable for the complete absence of information relating to one of the schemes in particular, the vacant property refurbishment grant. It is little wonder why. The details of this scheme, published separately by the Department, are staggering. In the past 18 months, only 21 grants have been drawn down from the Government's flagship scheme, that is, 21 grants in 18 months. Throughout the State, in our cities, towns and villages, people are all too aware of the scourge of dereliction and vacancy, something that grates all the more as people face a deepening housing crisis. Yet, despite this, despite the tens of thousands of vacant properties that blight our cities, towns and villages, this is a scheme that is completely failing to turn vacant properties into homes for workers and families.

When it was launched 18 months ago, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, had not even engaged with mortgage lenders. As a result, applicants were not able to draw down mortgages on their grants until the issues with the banks were resolved one year later. The scheme has also been criticised by applicants as the grant is paid in arrears. I am sure the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, has got the same type of correspondence that all of us in this House have got. Many of these applicants simply do not have the money or do not have the cash upfront to be able to pay for the works. The scheme is also chronically underfunded, with an annual target of bringing between 400 and 600 homes into use as a result of the money that the Government has allocated towards the scheme.

There is an alternative. Sinn Féin has put forward a more ambitious proposal that would bring vacant and derelict properties back into use. Through the increased use of capital funding to local authorities, we want to see up to 4,000 vacant and derelict properties a year brought into use for social and affordable housing.

The Government must be far more ambitious when it comes to tackling dereliction and vacancy. My own home county of Donegal is one of the worst affected by dereliction in the State yet not a single grant has been paid out there under the Government scheme, 18 months on. It is as if there is no crisis here. Eighteen months on, there has not been a single grant in Donegal and only 21 grants across the State. In the Minister for Finance's home county of Cork, not a single grant has been paid out in the city or county despite widespread dereliction in County Cork and Cork city and the very visible campaign to highlight and address that. As with so many of the Government's housing policies, it has been caught trying to pull the wool over people's eyes - launching a scheme with much fanfare, talking it up, but completely failing to deliver. That has been the hallmark of the tenure of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien - all talk, no action and plenty of bluster.

Will the Government now accept that the vacant property grant as currently administered is not fit for purpose and is in need of review and overhaul? Will it take on board Sinn Féin's proposal to ensure that we have a proper plan to tackle vacancy and dereliction, and that it is put in place so it delivers not tens of homes, as is the Government’s plan, or hundreds of homes, but thousands of homes that are badly needed for workers and families throughout the State? That is what is needed. That is the level of ambition. That is the proposal we have put forward. That is the funding we have sought in the alternative budget. That is what is needed for families and workers across the State.

I thank Deputy Doherty for raising this issue. When it comes to the housing challenge that we face, we can all agree that the best way of making progress is to increase the supply of all types of homes - public homes in the form of social housing, cost rental and affordable purchase, and also private supply. Thankfully, when we look at the overall picture, we are making progress in terms of output. That is because the Government is prioritising investment in housing. Next year, we will provide about €5 billion of capital through direct Exchequer capital, lending by the Housing Finance Agency and also the contribution of the Land Development Agency.

All of that work is contributing to a situation where, by the end of this year, the Government will have delivered about 100,000 homes since 2020. Coming from where we have been in terms of the supply of new homes, we are definitively making progress. Nearly 30,000 new homes were completed last year, which was a 45% increase on the level of output in 2021. We had setbacks during Covid and we had shutdowns of the construction industry but, thankfully, we have recovered strongly from that. Last year's momentum has continued into this year. Over 22,000 homes were completed in the first nine months of 2023, which is a 9% increase year on year. When we look at the data around planning permissions, commencements and completions, we see the continuation of a positive trend. In the 12 months to the end of September, about 31,500 homes were completed, so we will achieve the Housing for All target of 29,000 units in the current year and we will probably come in north of 30,000 units for this year.

The State will be the central actor in terms of delivering the new homes that we need across our country. Of course, we always recognise the need to do more because we have a growing population. Ireland is an attractive country where people want to come to live and work. They see employment opportunities here and they see a very good quality of life as well.

The Croí Cónaithe towns fund and the two schemes the Deputy referred to - the vacant property refurbishment grant and the ready-to-build scheme - have proven to be very popular. When I look at the data so far, I see that over 4,800 applications have been submitted to date and over 2,200 have actually been approved, so there is a lot of activity under way. A lot of applications are in the system or have been approved and the work is under way. Of course, the Minister will be open to any opportunities to improve the operation of the scheme. This is a new scheme. It is definitely proving popular and many people are looking to it as a means of bringing vacant homes back into use or tackling dereliction. The Minister will be engaging with the local authorities and with applicants to get feedback and make sure any issues that have arisen in terms of the operation of the scheme are being addressed over the period ahead. It is important to acknowledge that he has already improved the scheme significantly, for example by changing the eligibility date of vacant and derelict properties from 1993 to include ones built up to and including 2007, and also by increasing the grants from €30,000 to €50,000 in the case of vacancy and from €50,000 to €70,000 in the case of dereliction. This is a good scheme. The Minister will ensure it works properly and has the desired effect of bringing vacant and derelict properties back into use to provide homes for individuals and families into the future.

This scheme was announced a year and a half ago in the middle of a housing crisis and, let me remind the Minister, at a time when house prices have continued to rise across the State, a time when rents in my own county and many other counties have increased by double digits - by 20% in my county - and a time when we have the highest ever levels of homelessness. A year and a half on, in the middle of a housing crisis, 21 grants have been drawn down, with none in the entire county of Cork or in Cork city, none in Donegal and none in many other counties across the board. Why? It is because the scheme is flawed in the way it is being implemented.

It is not just those targets the Government is missing. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, misses all the targets he is responsible for over and over again. He was supposed to deliver 3,500 affordable homes this year, but six months in the number delivered was 123. The target for social housing was 9,100, but six months the figure was 1,400. The Minister is likely to miss those targets again this year, as he has missed them every single year since becoming Minister. The vacant home refurbishment scheme is popular and people want this, but the administration of the scheme, just like the way the Government announced this without even talking to the banks, has meant people are not able to draw down the money in a timely manner.

I thank the Deputy; the time is up.

Will the Minister, Deputy McGrath, accept the Government's targets are woefully inadequate? Will he accept it needs to do far more and listen to what Sinn Féin is saying? We are not talking about hundreds. We need 4,000 vacant and derelict homes brought back into housing stock every year for the next number of years.

Hear, hear.

I thank the Deputy. I think the evidence shows this scheme is not only popular but working. Consider that over 2,200 applications have been approved. That will lead to properties that are currently vacant or derelict coming back into use and being lived in by individuals and families. The Government will continue to support this scheme and to provide the necessary funding to ensure it meets its potential into the future. It is important that the issues - we hear the feedback - with the operation of this scheme will be taken on board and addressed to ensure it is as efficient as possible in its administration. The Deputy should have the good grace to acknowledge that this is a good scheme and will bring many homes that are currently empty back into use. It is only one part of a policy toolkit we have. We also have the vacant homes tax. We have just received the first set of returns from that tax and as soon as I have the data on it I will publish it, because it is another tool we have to bring vacant stock back into use.