Housing is often discussed in the Chamber but, too often, we do not discuss the reality of it and the real-life impact this crisis has on people's lives. The Irish Examiner spoke with some of these people this week. Kelly-Anne Healy is aged 37 and lives at home with her parents in Blackpool, Cork. She has worked since she was a teenager and always thought if she worked hard enough she would one day own a home of her own, but that dream is rapidly fading. She said, "When you’re single, people think you have this fancy life, but there’s not much you can do from your childhood bedroom." Kelly-Anne's living situation is also taking a toll on her parents who see their daughter struggling. She said, "My dad is the biggest worrier in the world and I know it’s difficult for him seeing me so stressed."

Jennifer Manifold is aged 45 and still living in a house share with two housemates in Cork. Despite working full time, she has no hope of buying and cannot even afford to rent on her own. Jennifer said her living situation is "depressing". She tries not to think about what would happen if she were evicted. She said, "This is creating such anxiety ... This is something that many people in a position of power would not be able to understand.”

Christina Galvin is 51 years old and may have to emigrate because of the housing disaster. Christina said she has a good salary but most of it goes on rent for her one-bedroom apartment in Galway. She feels huge stress and, tragically, shame because of her housing situation. She said, “I am beyond outrage. I am despairing."

Kelly-Anne, Jennifer and Christina are just three of the tens of thousands of people who are suffering because of the housing disaster. Tens of thousands of people are enduring the same trauma with their every waking moment consumed with dread and fear. Without housing security, your whole life feels unmoored. It feels as if there is no place for you in society, that your life is passing you by, and that you are missing opportunities to start a relationship, family or new career. There is also helplessness and frustration because you cannot do anything about it. Worst of all, some people feel shame, as if they are the failure. The reality is not being able to pay rack-rents or record house prices is not a personal failure. It is due to a failed Government housing plan and a shameful refusal to admit it.

We learned yesterday that house prices have gone up again, by a further 6%. As house prices continue to soar, the Government continues to miss its affordable housing targets. Last year, it managed to deliver just 499 affordable purchase homes and just 966 cost-rental homes. That is less than 1,500 affordable homes when the target was 5,500. Will the Tánaiste please explain why the Government is not meeting its affordable housing targets? Will he explain it to people such as Kelly-Anne, Jennifer, Christina and everybody else out there who are in similar situations?

I will make the point, and I have said it repeatedly in the House, that housing is the single most urgent and important social issue facing our people at this moment in time. Access to housing is fundamental to our security, social cohesion, opportunity for people and progress as a nation. There is not a family in the country untouched by the crisis. I respectfully suggest the Deputy does not have a monopoly on this issue in terms of empathy or understanding of the crisis facing many individuals and young people. I suggest everybody in the House knows of the challenges facing younger people in respect of being in the position either of being able to afford a house or to afford rent to pay on a house.

The Deputy attacked the Government plan but has not produced an alternative plan. The Housing for All plan is the most substantive document produced by anybody in the House. The Government produced it. It has been updated, refreshed and includes many different schemes. I have not seen any substantive, alternative document detailing how people think we will get to 35,000 or 40,000 houses. I just have not seen it. There is a responsibility in this regard. It is legitimate to criticise the Government plan, but there is a real obligation on the Deputy and others to produce coherent plans that will lead to increased supply.

Increased supply is the issue. We have exceeded our targets. Last year, we had close to 33,000 houses. The commencement data, which will be out at 2 p.m., confirms that house building continues to gain momentum. We had 4,900 housing starts in March of this year. That is an increase of 51% on March of last year. That is the highest number of homes commenced in any March since records began in 2015. Building began on approximately 12,000 homes in the first three months of 2024. This is 63% up on the same time in 2023. That is because of measures we took to accelerate and boost housing construction and commencements. Ultimately, however, even though we have delivered 100,000 houses since 2020, it is not enough. The demand is higher than the supply, which is the fundamental issue leading to price increases and huge challenges for people.

We have brought in significant affordability schemes, including the help to buy scheme and the first home scheme. There are capital grants for vacant houses, which are up to €70,000 in the case of dereliction. Some 4,000 people have now applied for those grants whereby they can live in those houses, if they are refurbished, brought back from dereliction, or if vacant houses are refurbished. There have been substantial numbers of applications to the first home scheme. That is real assistance on the affordability question.

I do not know whether the Tánaiste thinks people believe him when he comes to the House and says we do not put forward any solutions.

In the past number of weeks alone, my colleague Deputy O'Callaghan has put forward 255 amendments to the planning Bill but the Government has just routinely voted them down. One of them was around zoning land for affordable housing. It was rejected.

On the immediate solutions we have suggested, they include a tax with teeth on vacancy to try to address the tens of thousands of vacant homes in the middle of a housing crisis and an effective stamp duty on the bulk buying of homes where first-time buyers are not competing with billion-euro funds. The Government has refused to do that. It has gone under the radar this week that it will not. That is not to mention the introduction of a ban on no-fault evictions. This is something that is standard across the rest of Europe and the Government will not even introduce it when more children are becoming homeless by the week.

On more medium-term solutions suggested by the Social Democrats, we have put forward a motion on home ownership with a focus on redirecting subsidies from developers. Related to that we have a Developer Profits Transparency Bill 2023. The Tenancy Protection Bill will protect tenants from large-scale evictions. We have published a Bill which would make landlords demanding sex in lieu of rent an offence. Another Social Democrats Bill would create a land price register. We have put forward suggestions to amend the mandate that at least 15% of new apartment builds go to individuals and families.

That kind of spin is just something people are sick of and it solidifies the feeling that the Government is just in denial. Can the Tánaiste answer my question on what he has to say to the fact that he has not met any of the Government's affordable housing targets since it took office? I recognised that supplies have increased from the private market but we need supplies of affordable homes to reduce the price of housing overall because at the core of this crisis is an issue of affordability. Please answer the question about affordable housing targets.

Again, I say to the Deputy, everything or the majority of what she has outlined there or some of what she has suggested would reduce supply of houses, which is about curtailing the market or restricting.

Does the Tánaiste think that his approach is working?

We do not have to do this as we have already curtailed the bulk purchasing of property through the planning laws and through a stamp duty.

It is not working.

It is working.

It is not working.

It is working, despite all of the Deputy's spin-----

Not for apartments.

-----and the evidence is there in that the vast majority of house purchases-----

The Government could have introduced an eviction ban.

----in the country are by citizens and individuals. We have had the highest number of first-time buyers in years on an ongoing basis. What does that tell the Deputy? It tells us that affordability is improving-----

Will the Tánaiste answer the question?

-----for quite a number of first-time buyers. We doubled the number of affordable homes this year and we will continue to increase the direct intervention by the State. This is not spin, because Housing for All is a fairly substantial document. It has been updated, and so forth and there are quarterly reports.

It would be great if the Tánaiste answered my question.

I have seen no other substantive document from any party saying how we are going to get to building 40,000 or 50,000 houses per annum. We can all pluck figures out of the air but we need an actual programme and clear policy platform as to how one gets more houses built-----

That is what I have been talking about for the past four years and why we have raised 255 amendments.

-----and how one gets more houses into the private rental market. I would suggest the Deputy's policies would take more houses out of the private rental market.