The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland's report this morning demonstrates complete market failure and failure of Government policy to deliver affordable housing for the majority of working people in this country. That is what its evidence suggests. The average cost of delivering a three-bedroom house across the country is €397,000 and in Dublin it is €451,000, requiring a combined household income of €127,000. That means 80% of households in this country cannot afford the cost of housing being delivered by the private market. Some 80% of workers have been priced out of the market. The Minister will undoubtedly say we have affordable housing schemes. The affordable housing ceiling for shared equity in Dublin is €360,000.

It is not.

It is €360,000.

It is not. I will come back in.

But €451,000 is what is being delivered. The Minister will probably mention cost rental. A recent example of cost-rental properties near my area is as follows. A two-bedroom property was €1,445 per month and a three-bedroom property was €1,550 per month. In all of these cases, if you have two incomes in the household you might have a chance, although average earnings are €40,000 in this country so for the average house price, even two combined incomes will not be able to afford the cost the market is delivering in housing. However, in cost rental it will not deliver for single-income households because single-income households cannot afford €1,400 or €1,500 per month for a two or three-bedroom rental property. The housing assistance payment, HAP, thresholds are also too high. The homeless HAP threshold is €1,950 per month. Average rents in Dublin are €2,100 per month and if you are actually looking for something to rent it will be more like €2,500.

At every level people cannot afford it. They cannot afford to buy, they cannot afford cost rental in many cases and they cannot find a HAP tenancy that is within the thresholds. What do we need to do to be constructive? The Minister needs to recognise that the market is not capable of delivering for 70% to 80% of workers and therefore the State has to deliver 70% to 80% of what is being built as social and affordable housing. Can this be done? It is done in Vienna. We can do it if we decide to scale up the social and affordable housing targets, establish a State construction company, and in the short term, instead of the vulture funds buying properties, we must buy up what is being delivered in order to deliver social and affordable housing on scale.

I know the Deputy is earnest about this issue and that he raises it regularly. For the Deputy’s information, the price ceiling for the first home scheme in Dublin is €475,000 for a home and €500,000 for an apartment, and we review those ceilings every six months. On that scheme, we have had more than 7,000 registrations and more than 3,000 approvals, many of which were in the Deputy's county. There remain major challenges in affordability. I thank the SCSI for the work it has done and the report it has brought forward and that report speaks to the challenges we have. That is why we need to continue to advance Housing for All. What is important is that we increase supply across the board.

On social housing, I am a firm believer that the State needs to lead by example and we made a step change in delivery in that we will deliver more new social homes this year across the country, in all 31 local authority areas. There will be significant social housing delivery this year, more than we did last year. We will deliver substantially more affordable housing than we did last year. That will be significant and a good footprint. We will also deliver through the Land Development Agency, which the Deputy knows well from his area. Let us look at Shanganagh Castle which has good cost-rental, affordable and social homes. We will be recapitalising and further capitalising the Land Development Agency to deliver more homes and that is what we are doing.

You cannot turn this around in two years. We have made it possible to have a footprint and pipeline of significant homes across this country, both at a social and an affordable level, in providing the supports for many of those renters and working families to be able to buy the homes through the first home scheme and the help-to-buy grant. Some 42,500 households have accessed the help-to-buy grant so far and there have been more than 7,000 registrations for the first home scheme. Across the board we need to deliver more homes and we are doing that. The figures for planning permissions were released just today. For the month of October they were 45% up on this time last year, with more than 9,000 homes approved.

I have brought in legislation, as the Deputy knows, which he supported, namely, the owner-occupier guarantee. That was the ban on the bulk purchases of homes by investor funds. We did that and that has taken shape. Thousands of planning permissions have been granted, with an owner-occupier guarantee, which means the home is for a family or an individual. We have changed the local authority affordable home loan. We have upped the income limits for singles in particular because it can be difficult for singles to purchase properties. That is why the first home scheme does not discriminate against them in any way, shape or form and it is why the Croí Cónaithe vacancy grant does not do so either. It is also why we have changed the local authority affordable home loan and upped the income limits there. We are making progress and there is more to do in that space. We have cost-rental tenancies in place for the first time ever in Ireland. I will come back in on my supplementary contribution.

First, the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland is saying the ceilings are inadequate. The maximum you can go to under the local authority home loan is €360,000, well below the price the market is delivering. Therefore it is not available to huge numbers of people. The key point is that the Government's target for the year is for 29,000 houses. That includes only 9,000 social houses and 3,500 affordable houses, and by the way, the Government will not meet those targets.

We will.

Not even close. Only 35% of what the Government is planning to deliver, but will not deliver, is social and affordable. However, 70% to 80% of working families are priced out of the market by the prices the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland is saying will be delivered. It is not working. The Government has to dramatically increase - even in the Planning and Development Bill - the proportion of social and affordable housing that is being delivered. Because nobody can afford what is being delivered, the vulture funds buy it all, rent it at unaffordable prices or lease it back to the local authorities at extortionate costs.

Through our local authorities alone I have approved funding for more than 4,500 local authority-led affordable homes, starting from on or about €160,000 or €166,000. That is working and I have met people who are moving into those homes. The first home scheme ceilings will be reviewed at the end of this year. I have given the Deputy the real ceiling; it is €475,000 in his area and we review those ceilings every six months.

It is no good if the local authority loan is less.

The Land Development Agency will deliver hundreds of homes this year. It was not delivering any homes when we took over after coming into government. Deputy Boyd Barrett opposed the legislation to establish the Land Development Agency when we voted on it, so we would not have a land development agency. It has committed €1.25 billion in equity.

We would still have social and affordable homes at Shanganagh.

I am sorry, but it is doing that.

We would have had them sooner.

We come in at every opportunity. We legislated for the LDA, we capitalised it and it is delivering homes. We want it to deliver more and we are going to further capitalise it to deliver more. The Deputy is earnest in his remarks but when the solutions to these issues are brought forward, like a State construction firm, the LDA, he votes against them.