By all accounts, this will be the last time the Taoiseach and I speak during Leaders' Questions. I want to ensure constructive engagement rather than engaging in cheap political shots. That is important. It is fitting that I ask the Taoiseach about the issue that, above all else, has defined his Government's term in office, the housing crisis. This affects every family and every community. It is being raised with us every time we knock on doors. I am sure it is being raised with the Taoiseach as well. We know that everyone should have a home and that this crisis is not new. However, it has been compounded year on year by Government inaction, cementing itself as the civil rights issue of this generation and affecting every generation.

The Taoiseach took up his role nearly seven months ago but he has been a member of Cabinet for much longer than that and his Government has been in office for four and a half years. By any objective standard, its housing plan has failed over that time. Rents, evictions and house prices are up. Tragically, the number of people in homelessness is up and is increasing. The slowness of the Government to take meaningful action on the housing crisis has directly impacted on people's ability to obtain a home and has deprived far too many people of a basic human right. As I said to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, before the recess, over the past four years, the Government could have acted to prevent renters from eviction by passing the Labour Party's renters' rights Bill. It could have acted to keep children out of homelessness by passing our homeless families Bill. Crucially, it could have increased its targets months ago and sought to build more homes. The single biggest impact the Government could have had would have been through the construction of more social and affordable housing, through transforming the Land Development Agency into a State construction company, as we advocated, and through the setting of higher targets, which could have made a real difference.

For some time now, we have all been aware that the Government's housing targets have been a work of fiction. They have been set too low and, in many cases, have not even been met. Successive Government Ministers have conceded to me for over a year now that the targets were too low. Before we broke for recess, I asked the Minister for housing if he would at last provide the revised higher figures before the general election. He did not commit to doing so then. I genuinely welcome the fact that they have now been published and I welcome the Taoiseach's announcement that they will be much higher. However, keeping the targets so low until now has prevented industry from pivoting towards the construction of homes rather than commercial construction. The slowness in other areas has also contributed to delays in construction output. I refer to slowness to amend the critical skills list. During the Taoiseach's tenure as Minister for higher education, we did not see proper action taken to incentivise people to take up apprenticeships or to stay in them.

There is no big strategy for getting more planners, no big recruitment drive and no urgency or ambition to tackle the housing crisis. The ramping up of delivery to the necessary targets the Government is now setting has been delayed by the Taoiseach’s delays. We see no additional capital investment for housing in this budget. The Taoiseach must understand he has gone about this in the wrong way. Does he accept his Government has failed and is continuing to fail on housing?

No. I genuinely believe this Government can approach the end of its tenure pointing to the fact that there are very many more homes of a whole variety of different tenures in Ireland now that were not there before this Government came to office. By any objective measure, not only have we hit targets, but we have actually exceeded targets as well.

While I appreciate the constructive way in which Deputy Bacik engages on this important matter, I find it odd when people say the targets were set too low. I remember that not that long ago in this House, only a couple of years ago, people were saying we would not hit those targets and doubting that those targets would ever be realised. When you then hit the target and exceed it, all of a sudden the target was too low.

That is not how it happened.

The target was a fair reflection of what could be delivered when we were having to rebuild a construction sector almost from scratch. As a result, we have now absolutely exceeded the targets. Deputy Bacik has been a voice in this House calling for revised targets to be published, which the Government has now done today. That anchors the discussion for the weeks ahead. This Government believes we can deliver over 300,000 homes between now and 2030. We have outlined a breakdown of how many we believe can be delivered in each of those years. It will absolutely be up to political parties in their manifestos and in the time ahead in government formation discussions to outline what they believe the mix of that should be in terms of social homes, affordable homes and private-to-buy homes. I know people will have constructive ideas in that regard.

As regards the Land Development Agency, I would argue that in many ways we have gotten a lot of the way to what the Deputy is suggesting. The LDA is now partnering with many councils across the country to deliver homes on public land. I often hear in this House the need to deliver public homes on public land. That is now actively happening in many locations across the country.

On apprenticeships, we have taken a lot of action to try to incentivise apprenticeships, including providing financial assistance to anyone who takes on a new apprentice, accepting and understanding that the cost of actually training an apprentice, particularly for a small business or construction company, can be real. As a result, we have provided significant financial grants to businesses that take on apprentices.

We have also resourced other sectors. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has led on things such as staffing levels in An Bord Pleanála, which are up approximately 50%. Hundreds of more planners are in place right across our local authority system as well.

Today, however, we try to move forward by actually anchoring the debate and discussion about where we can get Ireland to over the lifetime of the next Government. That is a scenario in which, roughly speaking, for every new home built during the lifetime of this Government, two homes could be built in the lifetime of the next Government. Of course, all of that is contingent on a Government that will engage truthfully on this issue, have the credibility to show how it can do so and, of course, an economy which can continue to actually fund the delivery and the building of those houses.

While I welcome the very late publication of revised targets, I regret the fact they are being published so late. It is just not good policy-making to set targets that are too low for too long and then at the eleventh hour, one month before many offices will close for Christmas, to bring in new targets, especially when they are not being funded adequately. I have serious concerns about the lateness of the setting of the new targets.

I regularly speak with those in the construction industry who want to be part of a building programme that lifts people out of homelessness and ensures a more ambitious and urgent delivery of homes but they are fundamentally stymied in achieving that ambition because the Government has simply failed to support them adequately until now. Now, on the week the Dáil is apparently to be dissolved, we see those targets finally being raised. For more than one year, we in the Labour Party have consistently been saying that the targets need to be in the vicinity of 50,000 new builds per year in order to meet the scale of demand. That is what we are hearing every day in our communities and I know the Taoiseach is hearing it too. It is simply too late now to be setting those revised targets with any prospect of making real change in the lifetime of this Government. It is important the Taoiseach acknowledges that at this point for those who are in homelessness and for those who are seeking to achieve their own home.

What about the second bicycle shelter?

I have already responded on that and I am not going to take that again. I am not taking it anymore.

I will not start on you.

And a million houses.

Ignoramus. Absolute ignoramus.

A million houses and a bicycle shelter.

Please, Deputy.

Ignoramus. I hope that is unparliamentary language.

I call order for Deputy Michael Lowry.

I have still to respond.

Sorry. I was distracted.

That is okay.

It happens to us all, a Cheann Comhairle.

It is a free pass Deputy Danny Healy-Rae gets all the time.

Deputy Bacik has made a number of important points. As regards the targets, being honest, there is probably not much surprise about the fact that the targets are rising. The Deputy has suggested figures, as have all Opposition and Government parties, as to where housing needs to get to. We have heard figures getting to-----

The Government's commission clarified this.

Deputy, please. We will let the Taoiseach answer.

There is no guesswork involved.

We will have our detailed debate soon, but 50,000 to 60,000 homes are figures I have heard in this House and from people right across the building sector. Being honest, however, nearly the more important part, or at least as important a part, was getting the national planning framework for this. The old version of the national planning framework does not have an ability to deliver that number of homes in terms of land and zoned land across our country. What we have done today, therefore, is not just set the figures for the coming years, which I hope will anchor the discussion, and I appreciate the Deputy's welcome for them, but also put out the national planning framework in a draft form in order that the system can prepare for whoever the Irish people decide to be in government in terms of being ready for that increase in scale. Approximately 40% to 50% of homes being built in this country are somewhat subvented by the taxpayer. That is an incredible level of intervention and is almost unparalleled across the European Union.