Now I will take Leaders' Questions under Standing Order 36. The Standing Order allows for a brief question on a matter of topical public importance from each leader or representative of Sinn Féin, the Labour Party and the Social Democrats. The order of the House allows for three questions today, and the time allowed for Sinn Féin will be ten minutes.

Ten minutes?

Four-----

Jesus.

Back and forth.

You want ten minutes of me.

No, no.

I thought the Deputy might grab the opportunity.

It would be no bother.

I am more than happy to speak for ten minutes; I have a lot to say.

Forty thousand is the number of new homes the Taoiseach and Simon Harris said they would build last year. It is a number that was repeated again and again throughout 2024, going into overdrive in the lead-up to last November’s general election. Let me recall for the Taoiseach some of his bluster. On social media in October, he said the country was coming close to having 40,000 homes built in 2024. On Virgin Media, again in October, he said "we've now got to about 40,000" new homes. Of course, he was not on his own. Simon Harris first floated the figure of 40,000 in August of last year. In October, he was at it again, saying new builds would be "well upwards towards 40,000", and he repeated this claim at the Fine Gael manifesto launch in November. Clearly, the claim of 40,000 new homes for 2024 was being used as an election ploy, an attempt to convince people that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had turned the corner on housing. Here is the catch: none of it was true. The figure of 40,000 new homes was pure fiction, a trick designed to mislead the public because the Government could not face an election based on the actual facts of its performance on housing, and not alone had the rate of housebuilding stagnated on the Taoiseach's watch but it was in fact going backwards. Now his election lies have been exposed and he has been caught out.

Two reports published in the past two weeks have exposed the Taoiseach’s election gimmick and laid bare again his failure on housing. The first is the report from the Central Statistics Office, which states that only 30,000 new homes were built in 2024. That is a far cry from the 40,000 homes the Taoiseach parroted throughout the election campaign. This report reflects the fact that the number of new homes has fallen from that of the previous year, 2023.

Yesterday, figures released by Construction Information Services Ireland indicated that only 29,136 homes were built last year. That is not even 30,000, not to mind the 40,000 the Taoiseach put up in lights for the election. The truth is that his claim of 40,000 new homes for 2024 was a load of bull, and well he knew it. However, he chose to repeat the claim again and again in an effort to mislead voters.

The housing crisis touches every part of our society. It has driven desperation and despair. It is bad enough that the Taoiseach has failed to solve this crisis but worse, he openly and knowingly deceived the public on this matter in the course of the last election. The Taoiseach is on the record repeatedly doing just that, so he needs to set the record straight. Cur i gcéill a bhí ann ó thús nuair a dúirt an Taoiseach go dtógfaí 40,000 teach sa bhliain 2024. Ba chóir dó agus don Tánaiste, Simon Harris, an fhírinne a insint. This is very straightforward. The Taoiseach and Simon Harris repeatedly gave false information to the public regarding new house builds. The figure of 40,000 was simply untrue. The Taoiseach now has the opportunity to correct the record and I ask that he avail of that opportunity today.

Hear, hear.

Níl aon dabht ann ach gurb í an ghéarchéim is mó atá againn sa tír seo ná an easpa tithíochta. Níl a dhóthain tithe againn. Caithfimid gach aon dícheall a dhéanamh chun i bhfad níos mó tithe a chruthú chomh tapa agus is féidir linn. Housing is the number one social priority in this country. It goes to the heart of cohesion in this country, and it is the Government's priority, as it was during the lifetime of the previous Government. During the lifetime of the previous Government, from about 2020 onwards, close to 130,000 homes were built. We exceeded our targets in Housing for All in 2022 and 2023 significantly by more than 7,400. In 2024 the target was 33,000 in Housing for All and we did not meet that target.

In addition, there were estimates. Deutsche Bank predicted in excess of 40,000 houses. EY-Euroconstruct predicted 36,000 houses last July and Cairn Homes also predicted close to 40,000 houses. My commentary then was a genuine belief that we were heading for the high 30,000s. It was a genuine belief. There was no attempt to mislead anybody in that regard. I have to make that point. These were external groupings making estimates regarding the prospects for a high figure in 2024.

Of course, we know that because of the initiative we took in terms of waiving development levies and so on, commencements were dramatically increased over the last year and a half in respect of that. The bottom line as far as I am concerned is that I am very disappointed with the outturn for 2024. We got the figure wrong in terms of what we thought might happen. The target was 33,000. We thought it would be much higher than that. I regret that. However, what it means is that we have to fundamentally increase that figure. All parties in the general election had figures around 50,000 per year. The ESRI is suggesting that was the average and that we need to get to 60,000 by 2030. The issue, though, is how we get the figures to that 50,000 per year.

We need a fundamental shift, not just within the Government but in the Oireachtas more generally, in our approach and our attitude to private sector investment in housing. That is needed because, whether we like it or not and whether it is palatable or not, a lot of what has happened has disincentivised private investment in housing. The State is the biggest investor. We allocated €6 billion for 2025, the highest ever capital allocation to housing. The State will not be able to do it all on its own in terms of the 50,000 that people identify as our need. It may be even higher than that. Therefore, if everybody wants to be honest about figures, the issue of how we get there is the core question. When we exceeded targets in 2022 and 2023, the response from the Opposition was that the targets were too low.

They were.

No, they were not.

The incompetence was high; the targets were low.

Clearly the targets-----

Deputies.

-----were realistic because targets are-----

That is the build-up.

Deputies.

-----assessed by a number of factors.

It is the Opposition's fault.

Need is a different question to target. Need relates to our population growth.

We have to devise methods, mechanisms and policies that get us to what we need. I do not dispute what we need. Different parties had different programmes in the last general election.

For the first time, the Taoiseach and, by extension, the Government have openly accepted that they have missed their targets. I suppose that is progress of some sort. The fact remains that the Taoiseach deliberately and repeatedly used a figure of 40,000 new homes for 2024 when he has to have known that this was not going to be delivered. He cites Deutsche Bank but he knows that by the final quarter, the CSO, ESRI, the Central Bank itself, all of that data reflected that 40,000 was always fictitious. It was never realisable, yet the parties of Government, the Taoiseach and Deputy Simon Harris in particular, insisted on repeating a falsehood of 40,000 again and again. This was specifically to dodge the very necessary debate around the "how" of delivery. Could the Taoiseach go a bit further and make it explicit that the figure of 40,000 was wrong and was not delivered in 2024? Could he express, even, some regret for using that figure in the course of the election?

Could I say to the Deputy that if we take the three years combined, 2022, 2023 and 2024----

Sorry seems to be the hardest word.

----we exceeded our targets by close to 5,000 houses. That is not of interest to the Deputy.

The Taoiseach is not interested in people who cannot get houses.

The bottom line of the general election is that the programme Sinn Féin put forward did not persuade people. It wanted to dramatically disrupt and change the Land Development Agency.

The bottom line is that you got elected.

It was your policies that led to the deficit.

Sinn Féin wanted to get rid of the help-to-buy scheme and the first home scheme, which are so beneficial to first-time buyers. Its programme did not persuade.

We did not lie to people.

Deputy, please. Let the Taoiseach answer the question.

The platform as to how Sinn Féin was going to achieve a housing breakthrough or higher numbers simply did not persuade people.

We were honest with the electorate. We told the truth, Taoiseach.

Serial objectors - €300,000 new houses.

Even your own people are mortified, Taoiseach.

Deputy Ó Broin, please.

The Deputy has got to acknowledge that is the reality of it. We have exceeded targets in two years. In the third year, we did not. I am extremely disappointed with that. The estimates out there from the entities I have identified were clearly pointing in a direction which did not turn out to be the case.