We know that housing is the single most immediate challenge facing this Government - the civil rights issue of this generation. Last week, the Labour Party offered a motion that was the first opportunity for TDs to debate housing in this Dáil term. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage was a no-show and there was tumbleweed on the Government benches during the debate. No senior Minister showed up to contribute to the debate on our serious and constructive proposals which offered a credible pathway to ramp up the delivery of homes. The lack of input from Government suggests it is not taking the housing crisis seriously.

In the debate, I suggested that the Government was devoid of ambition and ideas in tackling the housing crisis. It seems, however, that it does have ideas and we have heard two ideas from the Taoiseach and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The first is to end rent pressure zones without a safety net for renters while the second is to return to the era of Celtic tiger tax breaks for developers. Indeed, just now on the radio, the Minister said that tax breaks must be on the table. These ideas from Fianna Fáil represent an audacious step for sure but one in the wrong direction and not the radical reset for which the Housing Commission called. If the Taoiseach was so convinced that lifting rent pressure zones and introducing tax breaks for developers would solve the housing crisis, the question is why Fianna Fáil did not seek a mandate for those policies in the last general election. It seems as if it is making policy on the hoof and it seems Fine Gael agrees with this critique. There is now a clear split in Government ranks. We understand the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, has set his face repeatedly against the introduction of tax breaks for developers. The former Minister for housing, Eoghan Murphy, documented this in his own book where tax breaks were previously ruled out. Both parties are contradicting each other on this on the airwaves. If they cannot communicate with each other, how does this sound to those at the sharp end of the housing crisis - the parents of the 4,500 children in emergency accommodation? How does this sound when Government cannot agree on what policies it is going to introduce?

We understand the Cabinet committee on housing has met and has agreed to draft a new housing plan. We welcome this focus and the fact we may now say farewell to Housing for All, which has patently failed, but we are concerned about what this new review will deliver. We do not want to see it deliver tax breaks that fail in the supply of more homes. We want to see a vision for an active State - a State that would take on stronger CPO powers, provide protections for renters, ensure the delivery of homes as a public good and intervene to address the real scourge of vacancy and dereliction across the country where we know 81,000 residential properties were vacant in the final quarter of last year, of which 14,000 were in Dublin. That crisis is just one example of lack of ambition and lack of radical policies. Will the Government's new plan take seriously the need to protect renters and take seriously the scourge of vacancy and dereliction or will we see a return to failed Fianna Fáil policies on tax breaks for developers?

The Opposition has a habit of making assertions that are not grounded in any facts. I challenge Deputy Bacik-----

Is the Taoiseach saying that is ag insint bréaga?

It is telling a falsehood, yes. I challenge Deputy Bacik-----

That is being Jesuitical.

-----to find any statement where I said I would end RPZs and replace them with nothing. That is what she just said. I challenge her to find that statement for me and present it because it is a deliberate distortion of what I said. The Housing Agency began a review of RPZs last year - not me, the Housing Agency. The expiry date is the end of this year. The Housing Commission says the same thing but Deputy Bacik now challenges me to go back to the Housing Commission. It is in the Housing Commission report about reference pricing. Threshold wrote to every party in its election manifesto saying we should go that route. We have not decided to do that, by the way. Is it possible to have a debate on housing without name calling?

Please, if we could-----

I did not interrupt the Deputy and I did not finish my statement but, again, the heckling starts because the Opposition does not like what it is hearing.

We have been asking for-----

Is it possible to have a serious debate, which the people deserve, on housing without the name calling and attempts to politically undermine and distort what is being said?

I do not think it is possible to have such a debate with the Opposition, given the Deputy's contribution just now and her misrepresentation of what I said publicly. I will say again that the last Government moved from a situation where we were doing approximately 20,000 houses in 2020 to more than 30,000 houses in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Some 130,000 houses have been built since the last Government was formed in 2020. That was a step change compared with what had been achieved in the preceding five years. It turned a corner but that is not enough. The Housing for All plan exceeded its targets and when it did so, the Opposition's response was to say the targets were not good enough or high enough.

Everyone knew they were not.

There are two types of targets. There is what we need-----

The ones you meet, and the ones you miss - they are the two types of targets.

Does the Opposition not want this debate?

Please.

The people did not buy Deputy Ó Broin's stuff in the election. They just did not buy it.

At least we told the truth.

The Deputy persuaded nobody.

We persuaded 400,000 people.

The Deputy persuaded nobody with his codswallop of a set of proposals.

Deputies, please, we have a Gallery full of people.

There is what we need, and we need 50,000 houses per year according to the ESRI.

What we get is very different.

The question then is how we get there. I will say again that the Department of Finance and everybody else says that we need approximately €20 billion in development funding for housing. At the moment, the State is spending €6 billion.

Not on housing it is not.

Sorry-----

Deputy Ó Broin, please.

If the rest of you could start telling us how to fill in the gaps and get to the €20 billion-----

I will happily do so.

No, you will not do it happily.

Whenever you want, Taoiseach.

Thank you, Taoiseach.

All the Opposition does is to say "No" to everything.

I will do so whenever the Taoiseach wants and in whatever forum.

I would welcome an engagement with the Deputy on housing-----

Thank you, Taoiseach, time is up. Deputy Bacik to respond.

-----but please, less of the misrepresentation.

What about the 1 million houses? Where have they gone?

This not Deputy Danny Healy-Rae's question.

The Deputy should sit on the other side of the House.

How dare the Deputy say that?

Excuse me. We have a Gallery full of people and we have the public watching. I ask for decorum to allow Deputy Bacik to finish her part of the question and to allow the Taoiseach to answer.

She might want to-----

Thank you. That is quite enough, Deputy.

It seems that the Government and its lackeys on this side of the House-----

That is not acceptable.

-----are simply going to use any opportunity to shout down members of the Opposition who are making serious points about housing. The Taoiseach is letting himself down.

What is the Deputy doing?

The Taoiseach is letting himself down.

What is the Deputy doing? She is shouting across the House the whole time.

Deputies, please.

Instead of engaging seriously with the Opposition on our constructive proposals for housing, the Taoiseach simply engages in name calling and suggests we are misrepresenting things. I ask the Taoiseach to listen back to his housing Minister who was on the radio just now. He said that tax breaks were on the table.

I was talking about what the Deputy said to me.

That is an absolute statement of fact.

The Taoiseach said he would not interrupt. Let the Deputy finish.

It is beneath the Taoiseach to say "ag insint bréag" about members of the Opposition and to accuse us of misrepresenting. The Taoiseach is in government. It is his job to fix the housing crisis.

Hear, hear.

We in opposition offered the opportunity for a debate last week but the Taoiseach and housing Minister did not show up. Barely anyone from the Government showed up.

Thank you, Deputy.

We have another opportunity this week. The Opposition is providing opportunities-----

Taoiseach, now is your turn to respond.

-----to debate and address the housing crisis but the Government is not engaging seriously.

Thank you, Deputies.

With the greatest of respect, Deputy, you had an opportunity to go into government but you did not show up.

We showed up.

We in the Labour Party have been showing up for years.

Yesterday, the housing subcommittee of the Cabinet met. We made some concrete decisions in respect of housing. There will be an additional €450 million of funding to build a further 3,000 affordable and social homes, and cost rental accommodation. We made the decision to establish a strategic housing activation office, as recommended by the Housing Commission, of which the Deputy is fond. That was decided and that is what we are doing. In addition, we have agreed the first revision of the national planning framework, which is extremely important in facilitating increased zoning of land to enable us to provide more houses. That will be published. I would appreciate the support of the Dáil in getting that through.

Thank you, Taoiseach. Your time is up.

The county development plans will allow us to reach, or give us a fighting chance of reaching, the targets identified by the ESRI.