On 4 October 2023, more than two years ago, I stood here and raised the disgraceful revelations that the HSE was sitting on a massive portfolio of vacant properties. Over 200 HSE-owned buildings and sites lay idle while the housing crisis tightened its grip on families. Back then, nearly 4,000 children were homeless and average rents for new tenancies stood at €1,590. Today, two years on, more than 5,000 children are without a home and rents for new tenancies have shot up to more than €1,700, and that is before the Government's so-called rent reforms come in. In the two years since the HSE was caught sitting on sites that could be turned into homes, Ireland's housing crisis has become ever more dire.

What did we learn just two days ago? In Monday's edition of the Irish Independent, it was reported the HSE still owns nearly 200 vacant properties, more than half of which are officially marked as surplus to requirement. These buildings were supposed to be converted into homes for people and families under the Government's last failed housing plan. Why has so little happened? The housing crisis is at emergency levels. Thousands of children are doing their homework in emergency accommodation. Our streets today are peppered with drenched sleeping bags, abandoned by people sleeping rough who have had to flee from the rain. People on good wages, like the man my office has been helping recently, are giving up hope of ever buying a home. He tells me he saw the one-bedroom apartment he viewed for sale reappear months later on daft.ie for rent, having been snapped up by institutional investors. That is a pattern we are seeing.

Yet, the HSE continues to give a bureaucratic shrug in the face of this national crisis. This cavalier approach, and it is not just the HSE, reflects something deeper, a Government dodging delivery. I looked back at the Taoiseach's response to me in 2023 on this question. In his reply, he told me to "get on to Dublin City Council". What a dismissive attitude to the issue of State-owned properties gathering dust while people are sleeping in doorways.

In my constituency, Dublin Bay South, just a few hundred metres from here, the Baggot Street hospital still lies empty, an eyesore reminding us of the continued vacancy and dereliction crisis ravaging Irish towns and cities. Over the past four years, I have called for it to be used as accommodation for refugees or healthcare workers or, indeed, for it to be converted into homes by the Land Development Agency, LDA.

However, the LDA tells me it has not even been offered the site by the HSE and now the HSE is putting a portion of it on the private market, with apparently no consideration of the public good.

It is not just the HSE, as I say. Across the State, public bodies are sitting on properties that could be transformed into safe and secure accommodation and homes. There is a human cost to vacancy. When will the Taoiseach confront the epidemic of vacancy and dereliction, particularly in State-owned properties? When will he lead a co-ordinated national effort to deliver the homes people need?

This is an important issue. I would just make the point that significant progress is being made on the housing front. There were 36,000 completions in 2025. That is a significant figure when we compare it with 2019 and 2020, when we were building just about 20,000 per annum. Then Covid-19 intervened for a good two years after that. The measures we have taken in the last 12 months are having an impact, and the feedback on the market side, in terms of potentially increased private sector investment, is positive.

On the rent reform measures, and the Housing Commission-recommended reform of rent pressure zones, RPZs, it is interesting that the Labour Party shares the opposition of some large developers and so on who do not want this legislation to come through. I read The Irish Times last week. Certain leading developers and landlords felt that this measure was encroaching on their property. It shows the level of polemic, spin and shallow commentary in the absence of any substantive and decent debate on these issues.

We disagree.

Is it the Opposition's fault that the Government cannot build houses?

On one level, developers are saying that the RPZ reform is an encroachment on their constitutional rights, while the Labour Party is saying that reform is trampling on rights.

It is.

It is not.

That is not what we have said.

It is, and the Labour Party has been saying it consistently.

It is going to put rents up.

Let us come to the HSE. It has about 190 vacant properties. We have been effective with the LDA in getting a lot of State property for significant housing developments already, and that work continues. The HSE has about 4,300 buildings at the moment in about 2,500 locations across the country. It is one of the largest property owners in the State and it has a very large portfolio. Of course, the properties range from small health centres in rural locations to very large acute hospitals. Some of them are pre-18th century buildings and others are modern, purpose-built facilities. That said, we have made it clear to the HSE that any properties that are surplus to requirement must be sold and the LDA has first call in respect of those.

About 168 of the properties are in disposal. They are surplus to the HSE's requirements and are in various stages of disposal. If a property is to be disposed of, a disposal strategy for the property is determined by the HSE on a case-by-case basis. Properties are disposed of on the open market and most have been disposed of via public auction. Twenty-two of the properties are vacant and under review. Those currently under review are being considered for retention and reuse by healthcare services.

The Deputy is complaining about the building on Baggot Street. It is being sold.

It is being sold on the private market. That is the point.

What is wrong with that?

I know they say attack is the best form of defence, so it is no surprise the Taoiseach chose to go on the attack and to mount an attack on the Labour Party, because he knows that Government policy on vacancy and dereliction is indefensible. He simply has no defence. It has patently failed. It is not just about publicly owned buildings. The Taoiseach and the Government have effectively conceded that the current system, including the derelict sites levy and the derelict sites register, is ineffective. I am looking at the Government's own up-to-date website, which promises to introduce a new derelict property tax. That is an initiative we supported. What are we seeing on the Government's own website? "A preliminary national register of derelict properties will be published in 2027, with the tax starting soon after." That is all the Government can commit to on its own website. The Government has flagged this many times as the key measure it is introducing to tackle vacancy and dereliction.

I think the Taoiseach agrees this is a scourge across the community. It is particularly a scourge where the buildings and sites are publicly owned - that is indefensible - but on the Government's own measures, there is no sense of urgency to bringing them in.

Thank you, Deputy Bacik.

When will we see new derelict property tax? Will the Taoiseach tell us that?

Thank you, Deputy.

The most effective thing we did in terms of dereliction was the grants for restoring properties and houses that are derelict or vacant. Thousands of young families have benefited from those very generous grants we introduced and there was no great enthusiasm from the Deputy's side in respect of those grants. It does not even reference them.

We supported them.

That is positive. It is a proactive way of dealing with dereliction in rural and urban Ireland. The Derelict Sites Act is still in place. Limerick has been the best example. It demonstrated what can be done in terms of the derelict sites levy. Other local authorities were not as good as Limerick. The Government is saying we are putting Revenue in charge-----

When?

-----but Revenue has to do a proper detailed mapping exercise with local authorities to get all of the properties properly identified and documented so that the levy can be applied correctly in an appropriate regulatory way.

There is no timeline.

Already, people are conscious of this.

A Thaoisigh, time is up. I call Deputy Paul Murphy.

People are very conscious that Revenue is coming onto the scene. We are getting action already in advance of it.