What planet is the Tánaiste living on? He stood there and said the rate of increase of house prices is coming down. He should open his eyes. It is accelerating. It is increasing month-on-month. We have had ten months of house price increases. In the Tánaiste's constituency, house prices are €100,000 higher than when he took office just four years ago.

The Tánaiste tries to lecture us in the Opposition. You could not make this up. Home ownership in Ireland is at its lowest level in 50 years under the Government. Fianna Fáil took the office of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I asked a simple question. The Tánaiste made a personal promise and made a commitment to the electorate. He said that if he got into Government he would deliver 50,000 affordable houses at prices that would be less than €250,000. I am asking where they are because nobody can find them anywhere. They are not in Cork, they are not in Donegal and they are not in Dublin. The Government has not delivered the houses and its policies are pushing up house prices.

Why is the Deputy shouting? We can hear him.

How do we know? The Central Statistics Office is telling us. The Government is locking out an entire generation from home ownership and locking people into sky-high rents. The vulture funds and investors are sweeping up those houses and renting them out at astronomical prices. That is Government policy.

The Deputy's time is up.

I will ask a simple question again. The Tánaiste can shake his head all he wants. Where are the 50,000 affordable houses that he promised to deliver that would cost less than €250,000? Please answer that question.

It is noticeable from his reply that the Deputy avoided any response to the fundamental problem-----

It is Leaders' Questions.

Build the homes.

Through the Chair.

Answer the question.

Please Deputies.

There are 550 first-time buyers each week now buying their first home. Mortgage drawdowns by first-time buyers reached a new peak at almost 26,000 in 2023. That is the highest annual level since 2007.

When Fianna Fáil crashed the economy.

Listening to the Deputy one would be forgiven for thinking that none of that is happening. What has been important in that is the expanded help-to-buy scheme of €30,000 to support home ownership.

It pushes up house prices.

More than 45,000 first-time buyers have benefited and the Deputy's party wants to take that support away from those who want to buy their first home.

It pushes up house prices.

The first home scheme and the shared equity scheme were opposed by the Deputy.

Where are the 50,000 houses?

Build the 50,000 houses.

Where are the houses?

They Government has broken the promises it made at election time.

The Deputy also opposed the grants for the vacancies and so on. Housing supply is growing very significantly.

I asked a question-----

It is very interesting that as I endeavour to respond to the Deputy; I did not interrupt the Deputy once-----

The Tánaiste did not respond.

That is not a response. The Tánaiste did not answer the question.

The Deputy does not want to hear the response.

I have known from the Deputy that most people like a bit of melody, but with Deputy Pearse Doherty it is a cacophony all the way with shouting, roaring and noise as if the decibel levels reveals the Deputy's rightness-----

The Tánaiste can attack me-----

Sit down, Deputy, please.

The Tánaiste can attack my character-----

Sit down, Deputy.

-----but I asked one simple question. Where are the 50,000 houses? The Tánaiste can attack my character all he wants; I do not care. Where are the 50,000 homes?

Does the Deputy want me to suspend the House?

No, I do not.

Then let the Chair speak. I know we are at a certain point in the electoral cycle where people are getting excited.

What has that got to do with it?

I know that hostages have been given to fortune but they are being given by lots of different people on lots of different sides. The public are looking at this and they expect the debate here to be conducted in an orderly way. They expect the debate to be conducted-----

Answer the questions.

Strategic interruption and heckling is no way to conduct an orderly debate.

The public want answers.

You, Sir, are the arch strategic-----

The public want answers. The Tánaiste is refusing to answer the questions.

You know very well what you are doing-----

Yes, I am looking for answers.

You know very well what you are doing.

I do. I am doing my job, a Cheann Comhairle.

You are strategically heckling constantly. The next time this occurs I will suspend the House.

On a point of order-----

No, you cannot make a point of order. Resume your seat.

The Ceann Comhairle mentioned that this was a debate. This is not a debate or an engagement if the Tánaiste refuses to answer. It is not a debate.

Resume your seat. If the Deputy persists, I will put the House into recess. We will now hear Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin without interruption please.