Yesterday, the Taoiseach accepted that 40,000 homes were not delivered last year. The truth is that the two most senior politicians in the Government, namely, the Taoiseach and Tánaiste, were running around the country claiming they would deliver 40,000 homes last year, a claim they knew not to be true. At the same time, data from the ESRI and Central Bank clearly showed that the Government was on course for failure. Even worse, in October, in the lead in to the general election, the CSO published the actual completion data for quarter three, which made it clear than ever that the Government had a snowball's chance in hell of delivering 40,000 homes last year. That report in October was damning and nobody in industry, housing policy or across the Opposition believed anything close to 40,000 homes would be delivered. The Tánaiste and Taoiseach chose to ignore and dismiss us in opposition, the CSO, the Central Bank and the ESRI in a deliberate attempt to mislead the public in advance of a general election. They did all of this because they wanted to create a narrative that their housing policies were working when clearly they were not.

What is their real record? It is runaway housing prices, sky-high rents, missing all of the social and affordable housing targets and a homelessness crisis that should make the Tánaiste and all in government hang their heads in shame. Yet, despite all of that, the Tánaiste decided to consciously, knowingly and deliberately use inaccurate numbers to mislead the public on what is its greatest failure in housing. The problem is that this tactic has been a hallmark of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in government. Simon Coveney misled on housing delivery. Eoghan Murphy misled on the number of people becoming homeless. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, misled on the number of housing completions. It was more stroke polities of the highest order. It is time to stop misleading the public and accept that the Government's housing plan is clearly not working.

We need a completely new approach to housing. No doubt, as the Government has done in the past, it will dismiss Sinn Féin's detailed plan on housing, and it will do so to its cost and the cost of people who desperately need housing and real change. The Government cannot so easily dismiss its own Housing Commission's report, which called for a radical reset of policy. It seems to me that all of the experts know what needs to be done, but it is the Tánaiste and Government who have their heads in the sand. The sorry fact of the matter is also that their threadbare programme for Government does not even mention the Housing Commission or any of its recommendations. It seems the Government is oblivious to it and that it does not matter. Creating false narratives and misleading the public is more important to the Tánaiste and Government than listening to the housing experts and dealing with the housing crisis.

The Tánaiste is up to his neck in this. The misleading claims of 40,000 new homes last year was hardwired into the Government's election messaging. The Tánaiste knew that was inaccurate and misleading. The facts did not matter. The Tánaiste and Taoiseach, Deputy Martin, set out to mislead the public to win votes. The aim was to make sure that the public heard that the figure of 40,000 new homes as many times as possible, regardless of whether it was true. The spin, sloganeering and failure on housing has a very real impact on people's everyday lives. Both of them misled because neither could face their record of dismal failure. They misled in respect of the housing figures during the election campaign, but also on the occupied territories Bill and even the future of a united Ireland, all promises which now seem to be in the bin.

Will the Tánaiste accept that he misled the public on his housing record? Will he finally commit, as set out by the Housing Commission, Sinn Féin and others in opposition, to a radical reset of housing policy?

I do not need to dismiss the Sinn Féin housing policy because the people of Ireland did.

Do you want to hear the answer? Please, Deputies.

Sinn Féin must be one of the only Opposition parties in the European Union to actually see its vote collapse in the general election, down by 5.5%. It lost the election.

This is a very serious issue, and I repeat that an issue that is serious deserves a serious response. When I was elected leader of my party and then Taoiseach less than a year ago, I made it very clear that we all needed to work together to fix housing for once and for all. At the start of this new Dáil, we should not seek to divide on this matter. We should actually seek to come into these Houses with constructive ideas as to how we can do more together to ensure the aspiration of people wanting to own their own homes is realised for more and more people, that we get people out of the box rooms in their mums' and dads' homes and we give them the ability to own their own home. That is what we have to do.

Just over 7,000 homes were being built after the financial crash. Working together with colleagues in the previous Government, we increased this to more than 30,000 per year. Let us be very clear. The Deputy is correct.

The figure is 29,000. The figure should be correct.

Let the Tánaiste answer, please.

The completion figures for last year are disappointing; that is true. When we look at the past three years together, however, we have significantly exceeded the housing targets that were set. We significantly exceeded them in 2022 and 2023. We now have good momentum, with in excess of 60,000 commencement notices over the past year. This will, of course, as night follows day, translate into increased completion figures in the time ahead.

It appears there was some displacement in the market as a result of development levy waivers and water connections, where commencements increased at a higher rate than completions have so far. Under the scheme we put in place and the measures we took to reduce the cost of building a home, a significant pipeline of homes have been commenced and must be built under the scheme by the end of 2026. That is good news for young people and their parents watching these proceedings today.

Of course, we have published a new programme for Government. It commits to publishing a new fully funded, radical and realistic housing plan to get more homes built. We are going to ramp up construction capacity to reach 300,000 homes by 2030, and we are placing a special emphasis on supporting homeownership. Not all of the recent housing figures are bad. Banking and Payments Federation Ireland confirmed last week that first-time buyer activity is now at a 16-year high, with more than 500 individuals or couples buying their first home last year. These are real people, in the Deputy's constituency and mine. The outgoing Government met and exceeded plenty of other targets in housing and many other areas, including employment and job creation.

I assure people listening at home that we are going to continue to adopt policies that ramp up home building. I understand that a lot of people are not happy with progress in this area. We have a lot more work to do. The Housing Commission has said that, and it is right on that point. Rather than point scoring or throwing rhetoric around the Dáil, we need to continue to work collectively for better solutions for housing. The Deputy can play a constructive role in that work or he can come in and throw brickbats. That is up to him.

The Minister wrote to me last summer in good faith outlining what a number of projections available to him, including from Deutsche Bank, said would happen. Of course, that did not materialise. The new Government is more determined than ever to deliver for the people of Ireland. Sinn Féin's alternative policies did not convince the people at all.

With respect, what actually collapsed is the figure the Tánaiste gave to the public of 40,000, which was instead 29,000. In fact, what has collapsed is the credibility of the Tánaiste and Taoiseach when it comes to housing matters. Their record speaks for itself. Every single month, we see house prices, rents and homelessness rising on their watch. Worse than that and to top it all off, they misled the public deliberately and consciously in the run-up to a general election, when even Government-funded organisations were telling them they were wrong. It was stroke politics by the Tánaiste and Taoiseach.

They are not interested in real solutions.

The Tánaiste says he is and claims that I am playing politics. I am holding him to account for, in my view, misleading the public. I put it to him earlier that the Housing Commission, the Government's own Housing Commission that is independent of all of us, clearly set out the failures and what needs to be done. He ignored it as he has ignored Sinn Féin's plans. I ask him again to at least concede he misled the public. Will he agree to a radical reset on housing policy?

Hear, hear.

I have already made very clear to the Deputy about the programme for Government, negotiated by parties who won a clear majority in the last election and working with Independents, and what we have agreed to do in the programme for Government. That is what our focus is on; moving forward with the delivery of homes with real solutions for people.

If the Deputy is seriously suggesting housing statistics cost his party the election, that is a bit ridiculous. People looked at their policies; that is what cost them the election. You would not really own your own home under the proposed Sinn Féin leasehold plan. Does the Deputy remember that? His leader could not answer a simple question - will the banks lend to buy a home? People right across the country-----

We told the truth. We told the truth; that was the difference. The Tánaiste misled the public.

Ceann Comhairle, I have to be allowed to speak in this House. We are not getting back to last-----

You are not helping, Tánaiste.

He would not answer any of the questions he was asked, of course. He ignored the questions.

She could not clarify that you could even access a loan or a mortgage under Sinn Féin's plan. The banks have still not confirmed that. His party would have pulled away the first-time buyer scheme-----

We are not in government, he is.

-----it would have scrapped the help-to-buy scheme and it would have ended the first home bridge the gap scheme.

The Tánaiste has been asked to account for his own words.

The Deputies do not like it. They seem to think their job is just to critique.

He does not want to be held to account.

Their job is also to put forward alternatives-----

He dodged and dodged and dodged.

They put forward alternatives that were emphatically rejected by the people who interpreted them-----

He has refused to answer any of the questions and he is dodging responsibility.

They failed to deliver, they lost the election and we are getting on with the job.