I add my voice to the condemnation of the outrageous treatment of the events that occurred for Tori Towey and call on the UAE Government to immediately drop the charges and allow her to come home.

This is the last week the Dáil is sitting before the summer recess and the last opportunity I will have to ask a question during Leaders' Questions. For six weeks now, we and many others in the Opposition have been calling on the Government for a discussion of the Housing Commission report, which was published in May and is absolutely damning with respect to the Government's failure to address the housing and homelessness crisis. We got a commitment that the Government would do so, but it has not. Was the reason the Government does not want to discuss the Housing Commission report revealed in the budget parameters that were announced yesterday in the summer economic statement? It is absolutely clear that the Housing Commission's call to effectively double the output of housing and dramatically increase the delivery of social and affordable housing to address the housing crisis is not provided for in the summer economic statement.

Last year, the Government allocated €5 billion to Housing for All to deliver 33,000 houses, including approximately 16,000 social and affordable houses. That €5 billion was to deliver on targets that the Housing Commission says are half of what is needed. It states that we have a housing deficit of 250,000 properties, that we need to build 60,000 houses a year and that we must dramatically increase the proportion of social and affordable housing. A basic calculation shows that we would need an additional €5 billion to do that, or close to that figure. However, the additional expenditure on capital investment that the Government announced yesterday is €1.4 billion and presumably that is not just for housing. We need investment in schools, water infrastructure, and special needs and disability services. What was announced yesterday, which the Minister said he will stick tightly to in the budget, is a fraction of what is necessary to deliver the increase in housing output necessary to address a housing crisis that has more than 14,000 people, including 4,000 children, in emergency accommodation; that has approximately 170,000 people on housing waiting lists; and that has completely locked tens of thousands of ordinary people - young people and working people - out of a housing market that is out of control. What does the Taoiseach say to that? Will he and the Government actually take seriously the scale of the housing emergency or are they just gaslighting people? The money the Government has allocated in the budget to deal with this crisis-----

Thank you Deputy, you are over time.

-----is a fraction of what the Housing Commission stated is necessary to address it.

This Government takes the housing crisis extremely seriously. It is the biggest societal challenge we face. It is an intergenerational challenge that causes significant anxiety across the country. The Deputy knows we take it seriously and he knows some of the figures he never mentions when he stands up to speak on this issue. That is his prerogative. We now live in a country where more than 300 homes are going to construction every working day. More than 500 people, including individuals and couples, buy their first home every week. Contrary to the assertion the Deputy made, we are seeing the largest number of social houses allocated in my lifetime. You have to go back to the 1970s to find a higher figure. The Deputy gives the impression with his narrative that none of this is happening. Commencements, completions and planning permissions are up. There are now real reasons to believe we can credibly lift the scale of ambition. I agree with the Deputy that we need to lift the scale of ambition with regard to the number of homes we wish to build in the course of the next five years. I say with respect that the Deputy is somewhat wrapping himself in the Housing Commission report even though I do not believe he agrees with all its recommendations. If he does, that would represent a significant policy shift on his part because it talks about the need to support small landlords and to have private development and private funding of development. I have not heard the Deputy advocate for either in this House.

Yesterday, the Government agreed the draft national planning framework. That, coupled with the ESRI research that was published last week, will enable us to set new housing targets this autumn. We absolutely look forward to debating how those housing targets will be delivered and exceeded with everyone in the House. Respectfully, when the Deputy referred to the figure of €5 billion he was being a little disingenuous because, as everyone knows, the summer economic statement only outlines spending from the Exchequer. It does not include any planned activity by the Land Development Agency, LDA, which we have already capitalised significantly. It does not provide any indication of funding for the Housing Finance Agency, HFA, or the funding available through the European Investment Bank. While it might be anathema to the Deputy, it also does not include the fact that private developers and builders will also build homes and that is okay too. It is not only the State that builds houses and it is not only the direct Exchequer that funds the building of houses. The Government has provided capital funding for housing in 2024, coupled with the LDA and the HFA, as the Deputy acknowledged, in fairness to him, of a record €5 billion, the highest ever in the history of the State.

The Ministers for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform; Finance; and housing, the three parties in government and I fully accept we need to do more. We will do so by working with the Oireachtas in the autumn when we set out the housing targets.

The Taoiseach did not answer the question. Is there more house building? Yes. Is there a bit more social housing? Yes. However, the Housing Commission has said we need to double the Government's targets. I know damn well that the LDA and the HFA are not included in the €5 billion figure, but that total figure was meant to deliver 33,000 houses, including approximately 16,000 social and affordable ones. If we are to do what the Housing Commission has said, we have to double the housing delivered by all sources. Private developers will do what they will do - or not do, as the case may be - but we have to deliver social and affordable housing to address the needs of those in emergency accommodation and those who have been on housing waiting lists for decades and to address the problem of working people being unable to afford astronomical house prices. The Government has not provided the money that can do that, based even on its previous investment in Housing for All. The Government needs to double that investment, which is what we and others have been saying for years and has now been confirmed by the Housing Commission. I do not agree with everything it has said-----

Thank you, Deputy.

-----but it is right about the level of housing delivery. Why will the Government not allocate the money? It cannot say it does not have the money. It has it in the budget surplus and the infrastructure funds-----

Time is up, Deputy. Please.

-----and it could impose a wealth tax, like the one the French people are asking for-----

Time is up.

-----after the recent French election with the Popular Front in France.

That was a great result, was it not?

We did not need the Housing Commission to tell us we needed to increase housing targets.

You did not do it.

Hang on a second. We are doing it but we do it in a clear, methodical, evidence-based way. I clearly announced before I became Taoiseach that we needed to build 250,000 more homes between 2025 and 2030. Many people scoffed at that - not people in this House, in fairness - and said it was not possible or credible. Now ESRI research, Housing Commission reports and the CIF indicate it is absolutely possible for all parts of Ireland - not just the public sector - to deliver 50,000 homes on average per year from 2025. I cannot speak for any other party but I think there is growing a political consensus that is where we need to get to.

I am very clear we will need more funding mechanisms to do that. We have a number of workstreams under way under the remit of the Cabinet committee on housing to prepare for the publication of the new targets. We will be back here in the autumn with the benefit of public input, and I hope that of the Deputy, on the draft national planning framework, with the ESRI research, when the Minister for housing will outline how he intends to raise the targets in granular detail. It is not fair to suggest the summer economic statement portrays the full picture in terms of capital investment in housing.

That is what the Government said.

It only includes direct Exchequer funding.