Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)
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I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes that:

— a housing emergency exists in the State; and

— housing is a human right as enshrined in Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

further notes that:

— 15,286 homeless people, including 4,603 children, were in emergency accommodation in January 2025;

— the typical listed house price across the country is €346,080, 11.6 per cent higher than a year ago and 35 per cent higher than at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Dublin figure is €460,726, up 12.2 per cent on last year;

— the number of second-hand houses available to buy at 9,300 is 17 per cent lower year-on-year, and the lowest recorded since January 2007;

— average rent nationally is €1,956, 43 per cent higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic, and in Dublin the figure is as high as €2,722;

— on 1st February, 2025, fewer than 2,300 homes were available to rent, down 25 per cent on one year previously, and this compares to approximately 20,000 short-term lets on Airbnb at the same time;

— 143,824 households are on social housing waiting lists, Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) and rent supplements;

— payments of €3.3 billion were made between 2019 and 2025, to landlords in respect of HAPs;

— there was a failure to meet housing completion targets for 2024, down 6.7 per cent on 2023;

— research by The Housing Commission shows a potential requirement of 81,000 new homes per year to 2050, dependent on population and household size;

— between 2012 and 2022, the share of young adults living in their childhood bedroom in Ireland rose by 21 per cent, to reach 59 per cent; and

— a large cohort of families are locked out of home ownership, due to earning in excess of the low local authority housing limit, but not enough to secure a mortgage;

furthermore, notes that The Housing Commission:

— estimates a housing deficit of 235,000 dwellings;

— asserts that "only a radical strategic reset of housing policy will work"; and

— further asserts that "it is critical that this housing deficit is addressed through emergency action";

further again, notes that Bunreacht na hÉireann – the Irish Constitution, provides for such emergency action in Article 43.2.2° - Private Property, stating that "The State, accordingly, may as occasion requires delimit by law the exercise of the said rights with a view to reconciling their exercise with the exigencies of the common good."; and

calls on the Government to:

— enact in law a "Housing Emergency Measures in the Public Interest" Act, declaring a housing emergency; and

— include the following provisions in the Act:

— the emergency will continue for five years after the passing into law of the Act, and at the expiry of this period the Government will bring a review before both Houses of the Oireachtas;

— create a state housing infrastructure investment fund/bond to unlock the €160 billion in Irish household savings to invest in social, affordable and cost rental housing;

— no further increases in rent during the period of the housing emergency;

— regulate short-term lets, by publishing and advancing the Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill without delay;

— fund local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to implement a tenant in-situ scheme, with a minimum purchase target of 2,500 homes per year;

— ban institutional purchase of houses and apartments, other than by local authorities and AHBs;

— significantly fund local authorities to purchase, by agreement or by compulsory purchase, vacant properties, for repair and letting to approved housing applicants;

— implement the recommendations of the Report of the Committee on the Price of Building Land, the "Kenny Report";

— institute a 100 per cent redress scheme for all those affected by defective concrete products, and apartment and duplex defects, and ensure the Government follows the scientific data in this area; and

— a massive construction programme of social and affordable housing on public land.

A housing emergency exists in this State and every TD in this Dáil, whether in government or in opposition, knows that well because every day they are contacted by families who are homeless, threatened with homelessness or facing homelessness in one way or another and they can do little or nothing about it. There are huge frustrations among TDs about this. Housing is human right and thousands of families are being denied that right by this Government. They are being denied a roof over their heads. The evidence for that is all-pervasive. It is everywhere to be seen. For instance, currently more than 15,000 people are homeless in emergency accommodation, including 4,603 children. House prices have risen in the past year on average by 11.6% and by 12.2% in Dublin. The cost of a second-hand house has also increased and the number of second-hand houses available to buy is 17% lower year-on-year. Average rent nationally is exorbitant at €1,956 per month and it is even higher than that in Dublin where it is at €2,722.

Between housing assistance payments, HAP, housing waiting lists, local authority waiting lists, rent supplement and so on, approximately 140,000 families are on waiting lists. We pay approximately €500 million per year to landlords. That is €3.3 billion since 2019. There is the failure to meet housing targets. Last year, that figure was down by 6.7% on the 2023 figure and between 2012 and 2022 the number of young adults living in their childhood bedrooms increased by 21% to 59%. A huge cohort of families is completely locked out of the housing market. Their income is slightly higher than the local authority income limit for the housing waiting list but is not enough for a mortgage. This is the independent evidence that there is a serious problem, indeed an emergency in housing. That independent evidence has been confirmed by the Government's Housing Commission report published last July, which states there was a deficit of 235,000 dwellings and asserted that only a radical strategic reset of housing policy will work. Interestingly, it goes on to say that it is critical that this housing deficit be addressed through emergency action. Emergency action is available. It is provided for in Article 43.2 of Bunreacht na hÉireann. That emergency action has a precedent. It is called financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, and was in place in the years 2011 to 2016.

Emergency action is available, has a precedent and is provided for in Bunreacht na hÉireann, so what would it look like? It would mean a declaration in law of a housing emergency. The provisions would include - this list is not exhaustive - for instance, the creation of a government infrastructure investment fund or bond to unlock some of the huge personal savings available.

There is approximately €160 billion in household savings and that would allow huge funds to commence a massive programme of construction of social, affordable and cost-rental homes.

Emergency action would also mean no further rent increases for the duration of the emergency. It would mean a ban on no-fault evictions because evictions are the primary driver for homelessness. It would mean that there would be regulation of short-term lets. It would mean a huge expansion of the tenant in situ scheme for local authorities and approved housing bodies.

The latest tenant in situ scheme, announced and notified to local authorities on Monday, is particularly restrictive. It will reduce the number of houses purchased by local authorities and it will drive further families into homelessness. That scheme needs to be significantly increased and a significant target of homes needs to be purchased under that scheme. Local authorities also need to be significantly funded to purchase, either by agreement or by compulsory purchase, vacant houses for repair and letting to approved applicants.

Crucially, we need finally the implementation of the Kenny report on the price of building land. I recall, way back in the early 1970s, as a young clerical officer in then South Tipperary County Council, where all the county managers of the day were enthused by this report and saw it as a significant effort in dealing with the cost of building land. That report needs to be implemented urgently.

There are other issues, including the question of 100% redress for those affected by defective concrete products and apartment and duplex defects. I believe that a declaration of a housing emergency in law would mean that the emergency that we undoubtedly have could be tackled on an emergency basis. I believe that every Deputy knows that emergency action is, in fact, the only way in which this housing crisis can even begin to be dealt with. I ask all TDs, and particularly Government backbenchers, who deal with this issue on a daily basis and who know the frustration caused and the effects homelessness and the insecurity of tenure has on families and individuals, to support this motion. It is, in my view and, I think, in the view of quite a substantial number of people inside and outside this Dáil that this is the only action that will make a start to the solution of this difficult problem that is undermining the very fabric of society. I commend the motion to the House.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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People Before Profit strongly support this motion. We thank Deputy Healy, not only for bringing forward this motion today but for years of pushing the necessity of legally recognising the housing emergency as an emergency and the necessity for radical action.

The motion contains the kind of emergency measures that the Government should have been implementing ten years ago. I was first elected in 2014. That year, there was a similar motion which called for recognition of a housing emergency. It was rejected by the Fine Gael-Labour Government. At the time, when we were rightly saying it was an emergency, 3,607 homeless were people living in emergency accommodation. Ten years later, the housing crisis has escalated so much that there is more than four times that many people trapped in that terrible situation. This morning more than 4,600 children in one of the richest countries in the world woke up in emergency accommodation.

For most of the past ten years, the Government parties have insisted that housing is its top priority. I do not know how they managed to keep a straight face through most of that but actions speak louder than words. Two years ago this week, the Government lifted the eviction ban. We predicted what would happen, and it did. There was a massive increase in homelessness from 9,825 in March 2023 to 15,378 at the end of February - a jump of 57%. The truth is that the whole time the priority has been to increase property prices so that landlords, landowners, developers, vulture funds and banks can keep making profits.

I am not sure that the Government is even pretending that the housing crisis is a top priority anymore. Ten years ago, the then Government had a target of ending long-term homelessness by 2016. Then it was ending the use of hotels for homeless people by July 2016. There is no target for ending homelessness now. In fact, it is the reverse; the Government seems absolutely content to watch the homeless figures go up, month after month. The only time it gets concerned about them is when an election is coming and then it lies about the numbers and it delays putting them out.

The latest example of the Government's could-not-care-less attitude is its reckless suspension of the tenant in situ scheme. The effect in my constituency and right across the country has been to take away the only thing standing between families and homelessness. There are families already in this process for many months. The average waiting time is a year. They had agreements with their landlord. They had been told they were finally to get their forever home; now they have had that cruelly snatched away from them by the Government. In one case I am dealing with, the person has been going through this never-ending process for 18 month but now everything is paused. She is facing into homelessness for no other reason than the Government is dragging its feet, presumably in an effort to cut the cost of the scheme. We know that the new budget will buy a lot fewer homes than the old one and that the point of the restrictions and prioritisation being imposed is to make sure that fewer people get it. The Government must reinstate this scheme immediately and increase the budget to the level needed to provide for everyone who needs to access it. That is what it would do if it was serious about addressing this crisis.

Of course, the Government has no problem handing out ever bigger wads of cash to landlords and to operators of private emergency accommodation. That is what the threats to abolish the rent pressure zones are about - removing any and all limits to rates of profit in the housing market so that rents and prices can skyrocket even further. The Currency reported last week that, in 2023, the Government paid private property owners €140 million for emergency accommodation. A typical example is €1 million a year for tenement-style accommodation on Gardiner Street in Dublin where the State is paying through the nose to warehouse more than 1,000 people in a giant slum. One of the slumlords listed, Joe Somerville, who was paid more than €1 million a year by the State for emergency homeless accommodation in 2022 and 2023, has a history of illegally evicting tenants in order to turn their homes into emergency accommodation. It is not an isolated example. The owner of TramCo in Rathmines has been attempting to do the same - illegally evict long-standing tenants to turn the building into homeless accommodation. This has been thankfully stopped for now by action by the tenants supported by the Community Action Tenants Union, CATU. That is the kind of grassroots action in a mass movement that we need to beat this Government.

Charles Ward (Donegal, 100% Redress Party)
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I thank my colleague, Deputy Seamus Healy, for bringing forward this important motion on housing emergency measures in the public interest. I acknowledge the inclusion in this motion of the defective concrete crisis, which many Opposition parties have disappointingly failed to include in their previous housing motions.

Support from all parties and independent TDs across every constituency is required in respect of the defective concrete block crisis. At least 16 counties have been impacted so far, but it is very likely that more will discover that defective concrete blocks were used in the construction of buildings. Families across the country have for years been living in homes that are literally falling apart. Homes built on foot of trust, hard work and sacrifice have turned into prisons of anxiety and despair. It is time we come together to tackle this humanitarian crisis and make sure that nothing like this ever happens again. To do so, the Government must listen to those who have been impacted, namely, the people who have experienced this crisis at first hand. They truly understand and know how to tackle it. Their voices have been ignored and their solutions rejected for far too long.

Impacted homeowners tell us that the existing scheme has been a complete failure. Families are being forced to rebuild on top of Weetabix blocks. Engineers with decades of expertise have warned of the failures but have been ignored. We have been told too many times that the scheme is evolving. If that were the case, there would be no need to keep going the way we are going. We have had two different versions of the scheme, both of which have failed. Once again, the Government does not listen. It has ignored more than 80 amendments from homeowners that would have transformed the scheme. It has rejected pre-legislative scrutiny on legislation designed to speed up the scheme and then left said legislation for nearly 18 months before implementing it.

We are stuck with a scheme that does not work. We warned the Government three years ago that this would be the case. There are many examples of how the scheme is unworkable. Take the example of two semi-detached houses located adjacent to each other. One family gets to have their house remediated because it has the funds to do so. They go into debt. The other family does not have the money and are left in the house as it crumbles. The first family rebuilds their house. The houses are put back together but the foundations underneath are contaminated. It is ridiculous. The exclusion of foundations from remediation is unforgivable. Naming the scheme the defective concrete blocks scheme is purposely insulting to impacted homeowners, many of whose houses and foundations are crumbling underneath their feet.

The Government has chosen to ignore this critical structural element when it comes to defective homes. This is leaving families at serious risk. Their mental health goes down the drain. Homeowners are forever trapped in uncertainty. They are not able to sell their homes because there are still defective materials inside after they have been remediated, not rebuilt. This has been going on for years. The scheme must be reviewed as soon as possible. Delays have consequences, and to continue to ignore the affected families will have consequences.

I agree with this motion in the context of the call to Government to carry out a massive construction programme of social and affordable housing on public land. The lack of real social and affordable housing in Donegal, coupled with the crisis relating to defective concrete, means that many families in the county have nowhere to go. There is a complete lack of alternative accommodation for families who are rebuilding their homes because there is nowhere for them to go. There are no houses available to rent. Families are left to live in dangerous houses and face severe hardship while dealing with this crisis. There is no end in sight for them. It was a slap in the face to impacted homeowners in Donegal and across the country to hear the Minister say last week that if the housing crisis was solved in Dublin, it would be solved for the whole country.

There is now a defective concrete crisis in 28 counties, all of which I have visited. If we do not tackle this and get proper procedures in place with 100% redress, we will not be able to solve this crisis and it will get worse, as we told the Government three years ago. We warned that this would happen. We were not listened to. Now we have the IS 465 register dropping. The Minister has met families who own defective apartments. I ask him to meet the people of Donegal who are affected and give them the answers they need.

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I remind Members that people should not be named in the House.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

"acknowledges that:

— Housing for All sets out an ambitious multi-annual programme that seeks to deliver more than 300,000 new homes between 2022 and 2030;

— more than 133,000 new build homes were delivered between 2020 and 2024, with 92,500 of these delivered between 2022 and 2024, exceeding the Housing for All target for the period by some 5,500 or so new homes, and a 49 per cent increase on the quantum delivered in the previous three-year period;

— there have been record levels of delivery for both social and affordable homes via the various delivery partners involved; and

— Government measures, such as the development levy waiver and water connection refund have been a catalyst for increased construction activity in the last 12 months, establishing a robust medium-term pipeline and supporting significantly accelerated supply of new housing in the coming years;

recognises that:

— the measures introduced under Housing for All have helped establish a solid platform to 'scale-up' delivery further in the short-term and secure a sustainable level of supply that will help us meet fully unmet and emerging demand;

— the Government's revised housing targets, informed by expert, peer-reviewed research by the Economic and Social Research Institute, and targeting a minimum of 300,000 or so new homes over the next six years, are an ambitious and credible pathway to achieving these objectives;

— the measures committed to in the Programme for Government - Securing Ireland's Future, including a new housing plan building on the successes of Housing for All, will help us meet the enormous challenge of delivering 60,000 or more new homes per year by 2030; and

— the Government's new national housing plan will incorporate pragmatic actions to boost housing activity in the short-term, coupled with strategic deliverables to drive comprehensive systemic change and subsequent increase in supply into the long-term;

notes that:

— Housing for All contains a suite of actions that have, and continue to, increase the provision of housing by accelerating supply and increasing the affordability of homes;

— the increase in new homes, as well as measures such as the First Home Scheme, the Help to Buy scheme, the Local Authority Home Loan, the relaxation of social housing income eligibility limits, and the introduction of the Rent Tax Credit, are all helping to support younger people achieve autonomy in the housing market;

— the latest Central Statistics Office data on market purchases of homes by non-households, including institutional investors, show the State was the largest non-household purchaser of homes in 2023, acquiring almost half of the 12,000 or so homes bought by such purchasers;

— the owner-occupier guarantee introduced by Government in May 2021, has succeeded in preventing the inappropriate purchase of homes to a single purchaser, securing those homes for purchase by homeowners, with planning permission granted for some 55,600 homes with conditions prohibiting bulk purchase by, or multiple sale to, a single purchaser between May 2021 and November 2024; and

— defective concrete blocks is a complex issue, which the Government is addressing by allocating a significant amount of money to affected homeowners, to enable them to rebuild their homes and get on with their lives, while changes were included to the scheme late in 2024 to take account of the most recent research undertaken; and

affirms Government efforts to:

— increase supply and improve the availability, choice and affordability of homes;

— build on the significant number of social and affordable homes provided in 2024, expanding the State's investment available for the delivery of social, affordable and cost rental homes in 2025, supplemented by the Land Development Agency investment, and the Housing Finance Agency (HFA) lending, which will bring the overall capital provision to almost €6.8 billion;

— support individuals and families who may be struggling to purchase a home, by bridging the gap between their financial resources and the price of the home, through a range of schemes including the Help to Buy, First Home Scheme, Local Authority Affordable Purchase Scheme and the Local Authority Home Loan;

— consider the best means for regulating the private rental sector, including any recalibration of the current Rent Pressure Zones that may be required, which will seek to strike the most appropriate balance between protecting affordability for tenants on the one hand, while increasing the supply of new rental homes through new private investment and construction on the other;

— boost supply of private rental homes by introducing new regulatory controls for short-term lets, by progressing the Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill;

— address homelessness through additional measures included in the Programme for Government, including to develop a cross-Government prevention framework, reforming the legislative framework, the continuation and expansion of the Housing First scheme, and a commitment to focus social housing allocations to exit families experiencing homelessness;

— sustain Tenant in-Situ Scheme acquisitions into 2025, as a clear indication of Government's commitment to preventing homelessness for Housing Assistance Payment and the Rental Accommodation Scheme tenants, who have been served a 'no fault' Notice of Termination;

— support a targeted second-hand social housing acquisitions programme, which responds to the needs of the most vulnerable by increasing the 2025 budget for the second-hand social housing acquisitions programme, from the €60 million available under Housing for All, to €325 million;

— support local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies to acquire and re-develop vacant and derelict buildings and sites, from single properties to more extensive buildings or blocks for social housing, through the Social Housing Investment Programme and the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund;

— support the full time Vacant Homes Officers in all 31 local authorities to actively pursue all avenues to bring vacant properties back into use;

— introduce new regulatory controls for short-term lets, by progressing the Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill;

— establish a land price register, for which work is committed to in the Programme for Government and already underway;

— continue to develop Land Zoning Value Sharing proposals to allow the State to secure a proportion of the increased value of land associated with zoning decisions, with communities benefitting as a result;

— prioritise infrastructure development as a critical means for increasing housing supply, noting the Government's commitment including, for example, investing additional capital in Uisce Éireann;

— establish a new strategic housing activation office, to coordinate homebuilding and investment in the servicing of zoned lands;

— expand the capacity of the construction sector, as another key measure to scale up delivery to the levels necessary by 2030;

— diversify sources of investment, noting the level of investment required in the long-term cannot be solely the responsibility of the State, and it will also require a very significant level of private investment, including appropriate institutional capital investment, which is essential for the delivery of critically needed private rental homes;

— work with domestic lenders to ensure that the banking sector is appropriately using its lending capacity to support the development of new housing;

— develop new financing sources, especially for brownfield sites and small builders, with support from Home Building Finance Ireland (HBFI), the HFA and domestic banks, as well as State support of equity investment; and

— deliver on the far-ranging commitments in the Programme for Government, and informed by the Housing Commission's proposals for the long-term reform of the housing system, accepting this is an appropriate response to the current housing challenges which Ireland is now facing."

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Government's countermotion and to outline the progress made to date by this Government and that which preceded it under Housing for All. I will set out what we are doing to build on the successes of that plan and our ongoing commitment to meet the significant housing challenges facing us as a nation.

Housing is a cross-society challenge that has a real impact on people's lives. I reassert the Government's commitment to addressing the housing crisis by implementing Housing for All and the suite of measures outlined in the programme for Government. We want to make it very clear that we do not underestimate the scale of the challenge and that is why we are considering every lever at out disposal. We are looking at immediate, short-term, pragmatic actions to increase supply, as well as longer term initiatives that will help sustain and build on this over the coming decade. It is important to acknowledge that we are not starting from scratch. We are building on the progress already made since the launch of Housing for All three and a half years ago.

Housing for All sets out a comprehensive and ambitious multi-annual programme to accelerate and significantly increase the delivery of new homes. This ambition is reflected in the record level of investment being provided for the delivery of housing in 2025, with overall capital funding of almost €6.8 billion now available and a further €1.65 billion in current funding to address housing need.

Last year's dip in delivery was very disappointing, but supply continues to grow in the longer term. More that 133,000 new-build homes were delivered between 2020 and 2024, with 92,500 of these delivered between 2022 and 2024, up almost 50% on the three previous years. Building new homes remains a key priority for the Government. To this end, we have committed to delivering some 300,000 new homes by 2030, rising to 60,000 homes per year by the end of that period. Scaling up to 60,000 homes per year and building further on this thereafter will be an enormous challenge. We will rise to this challenge by utilising all the means available to us. We will do this by, among other things, prioritising investment in infrastructure development. For example, we will draw on the Housing Commission's proposals and establish a new strategic housing activation office to co-ordinate home building and investment in the service of zoned lands and to remove barriers that stifle supply.

The commencement of the Planning and Development Act 2024 is a key priority for the Government. The Act will bring greater clarity and certainty. The revised national planning framework will provide local authorities with scope to zone the amount of land required to meet housing needs in areas of highest demand. The motion calls for the creation of a State housing infrastructure investment fund or bond to unlock housing savings. We are examining all options to secure the public and private financing required to deliver on our targets. We continue to engage with domestic lenders and we continue to explore development of new financing resources, especially for brownfield sites and small builders, with the support of Home Building Finance Ireland, HBFI, the Housing Finance Agency, HFI, as well as State-supported equity investment.

The motion also calls for a ban on institutional purchases of houses and apartments, other than by local authorities and AHBs. The nature and the scale of homes being bought by non-household purchasers is often misinformed. The reality is illustrated by latest CSO data on market purchases of homes by non-households, including institutional investors, is that the State was the largest non-household purchaser of homes in 2023. It acquired almost half of the 12,000 or so homes bought by such purchasers. Furthermore, the owner-occupier guarantee introduced by the Government in May 2021 has succeeded in preventing the inappropriate purchase of homes by a single purchaser and securing those homes for purchase by homeowners.

Between May 2021 and November 2024, planning permission was granted for some 55,600 homes with conditions prohibiting bulk purchase by or multiple sales to a single purchaser of those homes. Affordability is a key focus of Housing for All, which introduced many measures to support access to affordable housing and assist those aspiring to buy their own home to do so. It includes the help to buy scheme, the local authority affordable purchase schemes, the local authority home loan and the first home shared equity scheme. Unprecedented State investment under Housing for All has supported record levels of delivery of both social and affordable homes via the various delivery partners involved.

We continue to deliver the first affordable homes in a generation and we are going from strength to strength with affordable housing supports provided in 2024 likely to significantly exceed 2023's outturn. Notably, since July 2020, almost 42,000 social homes have been added to the social housing stock. We also have a strong pipeline, with more than 28,000 homes at all stages of design and build. The Government will continue to roll out the largest social housing programme in the history of the State. The programme for Government contains a commitment to expanding on this significantly. It will target some 12,000 homes per year on average over the Government's term. Allied with support for approximately 15,000 starter homes, this reflects our commitment to resolving the housing crisis.

In the rental market, we have committed to continuing support for renters and landlords, including measures to protect renters and landlords from abusive practices through enhanced enforcement powers for the Residential Tenancies Board. We will consider the best means for regulating the private rental sector, including any recalibration of the existing rent pressure zones that may be required. We will seek to strike the most appropriate balance between protecting affordability for tenants on the one hand, while increasing the supply of new rental homes for new private investment and construction on the other.

Tenant in situ acquisitions are recognised as a key measure in the prevention of homelessness and as such I reassert the Government's commitment to the continuation of a more focused and targeted programme to ensure it benefits those most in need. To this end I have requested local authorities focus on the following priority categories, namely, tenant in situ acquisitions, older persons or persons with a disability, exits from homeless services and buy or new acquisitions which tackle vacancy. Prioritising vulnerable households for support under the second-hand acquisitions programme is important but it does not mean excluding others. It will be a matter for local authorities to respond to local needs.

To conclude, this Government is dedicated to ensuring the continued success of Housing for All and implementing the far-ranging commitments of the programme for Government. In its countermotion, the Government highlights the substantial progress made to date and how it will built on this progress. We have achieved much since Housing for All was published and will continue to work tirelessly over the terms of this Government to increase supply, address the affordability challenges and fix the housing system for our children, grandchildren and generations to come.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It is obvious the Government does not want to solve the housing crisis. It has dropped the pretence. It has no targets, it is curtailing the tenant in situ scheme, it has always resisted rent controls and its homelessness figures continue to rise. It does absolutely nothing about it. It does not want to stop the flow into homelessness. It is planning to remove even the minimal rent controls. It does not want to solve the housing crisis. The truth about the Government's housing policy was revealed in the White House in the exchange between Donald Trump and Micheál Martin. When Trump said that the housing crisis in this country was a sign of success, the Taoiseach said it was a good answer and he had not thought of that one. Why does Trump think it is a success? He is a property speculator, a billionaire and a landlord. He makes money when house prices and rents are high, when there is a shortage of housing and when there is poor quality housing. That is how they make money. That is how the rich in this country make money. That is how the property investors make money. They have no interest in solving the housing crisis. In fact, they have an interest in making sure we do not solve the housing crisis because if there was an adequate supply of affordable housing, built on a not-for-profit basis, they could not make profit. That is the simple truth and that is why the Government resists every measure to address the housing crisis. It is there to represent the landlords, the property speculators, the developers, the Trumps of this world and their Irish equivalents. That is what the Government is, that is what it is doing and that was revealed in the White House. You could even see it from the lack of energy in the Minister's speech. He reads off the script. The Government does not flipping care anymore. We are dropping the pretence that we are trying to solve this. This relates to defective and poor quality buildings. It is profitable for the people who build houses to cut corners. They do not put in fire breaks, do not put in proper materials, and do not check the houses in case they turn out to be defective because it would cut into their profits. It is greed, greed, greed. That is what the Government represents and ordinary people are suffering.

It also relates to another issue I would like to raise again about the thresholds. If someone is on a working family payment, and is working, that can take them over the threshold for social housing. Thousands and thousands of working people who go out, work hard and pay their taxes are taken off the housing lists after ten or 15 years waiting when they are on a working family payment or just because they get a pay rise or they do a bit of over time. It is gone and they have no chance whatsoever. They are trapped in homelessness or in squalid conditions with multiple generations living in poor quality housing. I have raised this again and again. It also affects the attitude in councils because they want people to live in squalid conditions because they want to say they, "Oh we cannot make it easy for you to have a decent house". I have been fighting cases in Sallynoggin and in Shankill now where people are living in housing of crappy quality because the Government does not believe housing that is secure, affordable and decent is a right. It is a right but the profit-hungry developers which the Government represents make money from it so it does not want to do anything.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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I commend Deputy Healy on bringing this motion seeking to make housing an emergency. I am gobsmacked. Here we are again looking at a sole face over on the backbenches. Not only is housing not an emergency for the Government, it is not even a priority. The Minister did not even use his full time. He had three minutes left. None of the backbenchers who have been talking about wanting to speak even bothered their barnies coming in and taking up the time the Minister did not care about. Two-thirds of under 35s living with their parents in the back bedroom, the back garden, which is the Government's latest measure, or abroad, which is where most of them are, are absolutely disgusted at the election result and the fact that we are here again with a Government that simply does not care.

We have a school in our area, the Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 area, that has begged parents to provide spare rooms for teachers. It cannot employ teachers because of the housing crisis. I have had letters from school students in the area as well. We have one in three vacancies in the CDNT area because people cannot afford to live here, which is adding to the waiting lists here on autism awareness day. I bring this to the Minister's attention and ask him what action he has taken about this. In Fingal County Council, one of the biggest councils in the country, and the Blanchardstown area - Blanchardstown being the fifth biggest population area in the country - there is a massive land bank sitting idle that the council has said could provide 7,000 homes. Meanwhile, young people in their bedrooms or who are emigrating are sitting looking at this. There was an article in The Irish Times yesterday that stated Fingal County Council will seek €200 million from central government to try to develop this land bank. It is waiting for a fund to be set up so it can do this. What an absolute joke. The idea of a State company would have prioritised these huge land banks to provide affordable and social housing. I am not a fan of cost rental at all. It is a scam where the rent is so high it is not affordable. However, I refer to social and affordable housing. When I went back onto the council I pushed this and Fingal County Council has it as a long-term policy to develop it. This should be developed in the short term - in the lifetime of this Government. I am demanding that the Minister makes this a priority. He should be identifying land banks such as this, bringing in the local authorities and asking them what they need to get this started. That is the only way the housing crisis will be resolved.

The other scam is Government citing figures that the private sector is building. Journalists should not even be giving this any credence. They are not Government houses; they are private homes most of which are completely and utterly unaffordable. The only figures should be public housing. That should be the Minister's focus. Will he bring in Fingal County Council and ask it what it needs in this regard?

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Gabhaim buíochas le mo chomhghleacaí an Teachta Healy. I was elected in 2016 and since then, with all my colleagues here, we have begged, implored and appealed to the Government to declare a housing emergency to recognise that we have crisis but it has utterly failed to do that. Once again, it keeps turning language on its head, even in relation to social housing as it called HAP provision social housing. I am here to support this motion. The Housing Commission report has been quoted many times. It is really worth quoting because the Housing Commission had 200 meetings and developed 83 recommendations. I want to highlight three alone that we rarely hear from the Government. The report said we should base our housing policy on an assessment of the housing required for a well-functioning society. We cannot have a well-functioning society if tenants are going from emergency to emergency to emergency accommodation. Another prominent finding was the negative impacts of housing crises on overall quality of life in Ireland. Some 74% of respondents indicated that their housing situation negatively affected their quality of life. Another really important recommendation for me was that "account must be taken in housing policy of the full economic and social costs associated with not meeting Ireland’s housing requirements." Of course, the easiest cost to identify is the money we are putting straight into landlord's pockets and calling it social housing under HAP, under long-term leasing and under RAS.

Then we have a situation in Galway where we have entities working on their own. There is lots of land at Ceannt Station where an entity is doing entirely its own thing. Do you know what the docks area is going to develop? Not social housing and not public housing but premium housing on public land held in trust by the harbour company for the people of Galway.

They are going to get the highest price on their site to develop premium housing. This is in a city where we have a catastrophic housing crisis.

The Simon Community produces a report every quarter to say there are no houses available, even under the discretionary scheme where the money goes higher under HAP. No houses are available. I am again waiting for the Simon Community's first quarterly report for this year. We all have people coming to our offices who have been waiting between 16 and 20 years for houses. Homeless services in Galway city are at capacity. The Government is simply ignoring the Housing Commission, which was set up at its request and which held all of those meetings. The commission made 83 recommendations and indicated that we need a radical reset of housing policy. Anybody with a bit of sense would say we have failed. Put your hands up. We all agree. The system has failed, but the Government persists in rewarding developers and rewarding private, for-profit businesses on every level - in direct provision and in housing.

In respect of homeless services, a figure was cited earlier by one of my colleagues. Surely at some stage the Government is going to recognise the cost of not doing something, as the commission has pointed out. That cost is going to be astronomical, both psychologically and financially.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank Deputy Healy and his colleagues for tabling this important motion and allowing us to have a crucial debate. Sinn Féin will be fully supporting the motion. While we may have some differences on elements of the detail relating to the policy proposals, we fully support the intention behind all of them.

Last Friday, the latest homeless figures were published. As the Minister knows, a record number of people are living in emergency accommodation funded by his Department. The figure is 15,378, some 4,653 of whom are children. The Minister also knows that this does not reflect the true level of homelessness. It does not include women and children in Tusla-funded domestic violence shelters. It does not include men and women in religious institution-funded homeless shelters that are not in receipt of State funding. It does not include rough sleepers. It does not include any of those people with refugee status, with subsidiary protection or with leave to remain who are trapped in direct provision and are essentially using it as homeless emergency accommodation. The real figure is now in excess of 20,000.

What is really important about the motion is the call for the Government to have an emergency response. Not only are we not getting that, the Government is doing things to make the situation worse. On Monday, the Minister made a number of very important announcements. He announced the capital allocations for social housing acquisitions, including the tenant in situ scheme. That represents an actual cut on the money that was spent by local authorities on acquisitions, including for tenants in situ, last year. When we finally get the figures from the Minister by way of parliamentary questions, we will be able to definitively prove that. Dublin City Council is already telling its elected members that the total acquisitions allocation the Department has given them for this year is €22 million less than last year. That is the local authority with the highest levels of homelessness.

I agree with colleagues on the new restrictions the Minister has introduced by way of the relevant circular. He uses the phrase "focused and targeted", which means that fewer people will get it. In particular, the removal of refurbishment costs, the two-year rule and the retrospective application of the new rules to many applications pending since last year will mean people who would otherwise have got access to this vital homelessness prevention support will not now get it. I have already been contacted by two households. The first is that of a young woman in Dublin city with three children who cares for her father. Her tenancy with her landlord has been in place for less than two years. She has been told by Dublin City Council that she is no longer eligible. In the second case, I received a very distressing email yesterday from a pensioner couple in Cork who are very advanced with their tenant purchase application but who, because refurbishment costs are excluded and their sale was not closed, have been notified by Cork County Council that the application can no longer proceed. A young woman with three children and two elderly pensioners in their 70s are at risk of homelessness as a consequence of the Minister's decision.

What is also very concerning is that the funding is going to run out. There are hundreds of pending applications across the State from last year, 70 in my own local authority, over 70 in Dublin city and 100 or more in Limerick city and county. If the Minister provided less funding for this year, after the overhang is gone and even if notices of termination and eviction notices dip slightly, the money will run out before the end of the year and more people will become homeless.

I am also very concerned about the Minister's capital funding announcements in respect of social housing. I welcome every extra cent provided by the Government for social and affordable housing. I welcome every additional social or affordable home funded by the State. However, when the Revised Estimates were published in December, there was a €540 million shortfall between capital allocation for social and affordable housing this year and the outturn for last year. The Minister has closed some of that gap but he has not provided clarity on whether he is going to close all of it and significantly increase the funding. When I listened to him on "Morning Ireland", he talked about figures of €3.6 billion and €3.8 billion. He was being deliberately disingenuous. That is not capital spending for social and affordable housing, as the Minister knows from his programme heads. It is the totality of capital spending in his Department for social, affordable and private housing as well as for grants, upgrades and improvements. I want to know the total additional spend for social and affordable housing by programme subhead for this year. Will the Minister publish that information and put the issue to bed once and for all?

I strongly support the inclusion of measures relating to defective blocks in this motion. There are two urgent actions the Minister needs to take now. He needs to amend the underpinning legislation for the defective blocks scheme to allow people who are getting tenders from their builders to avail of the most up-to-date SCSI costings rather than those that obtained at the time of the grant application. He also needs to get the finger out on emergency fire safety funding to deal with apartments with Celtic tiger-era defects. It is two years and three months since the Cabinet agreed that scheme. It is a year and three months since the scheme opened. As the Minister knows, because he has met the affected families in Parkwest, not a single cent has been spent. We needed an emergency response. That is not what we have got so far from the Minister over the past 11 weeks.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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We need to treat the housing emergency in the same way we treated Covid. The whole of Government needs to get behind this, as does the Opposition, to come up with solutions. I do not want to see 4,653 children in emergency accommodation. I asked the Minister's predecessor how many children must become homeless before the Government finally accepts its policies are wrong. I will ask the current Minister the same question. How many children need to become homeless before you will put your hand up and say "We cannot fix it"? Someone needs to take responsibility.

I deal with families every day. I held a clinic on Monday. Of the 21 people I met, 17 had housing and four were homeless. This is on the watch of the parties opposite. Fine Gael has been in power for 14 years and Fianna Fáil for ten. It is getting worse every month. I and some other Deputies and Senators met with the Construction Industry Federation in Cork last week. The figures it supplied us with are unbelievable. In Ballincollig, the figure for what was supposed to be delivered for 2028 was 3,947. Does the Minister know how many planning permissions have gone in? Only 125. In Blarney, they have planning permissions in for only 10% of the figure that is to be achieved by 2028. I had a question to the Minister last week about the situation with thousands of local authority houses boarded up across the State. Will he not just give the local authorities the resources and funding necessary to get these out? I have advocated that there would be a team in place in every local authority area to retrofit these houses and allocate them straight away. We have 19 houses in Cork that have been empty for more than three years. It is a shame.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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When the Minister's predecessor entered office, there was a debate about whether there was a housing crisis. Ultimately, he accepted that there was a housing crisis. In truth, we have had a housing crisis and a housing emergency for seven or eight years, maybe longer, but we have never had an emergency response. The Minister may protest about that, but, as a society, we have had emergency responses in respect of a number of policy areas in recent years - in many instances, these were warranted - but nothing similar has happened in terms of housing. The Government's approach has been to hope that business as usual will resolve the housing crisis. There has been no radical shift and no significant emergency response.

The only conclusion I can draw is that in its heart of hearts, the Government believes that the housing crisis is exaggerated or is not as severe as people in the House are saying it is. The facts speak for themselves. We have record numbers of people homeless.

What kind of situation is it that - I am not even sure I blame the media – the record is broken every month and it is hardly a major story? It has become so normalised to break the record for homelessness that it barely registers in the public’s imagination. That is the extent to which the Government and the previous Government have succeeded in normalising homelessness. In my opinion, there has never been the emergency response that is needed. It needs to begin now.

I will briefly make a point on affordable accommodation, so-called affordable schemes and some of the schemes we have seen come down the track. A scheme was outlined by Cork City Council in recent weeks. While I welcome any progress in terms of a roof over people’s heads, for the people who are frozen out of social housing and cannot get an adequate mortgage, there really is still no option for them. We are talking about minimum house prices of-----

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I ask Deputy Ó Laoghaire to conclude.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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I thought it was two and a half minutes. I will finish on this point. We are talking about minimum house prices of between €310,000 and €326,000 and maximum prices of €365,000. For people who are on a single income of €40,000, €50,000 or €60,000 and do not qualify for social housing, it is still out of reach for those people.

Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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It should come as no surprise that Sinn Féin supports the principle behind this Private Members’ motion, as many of the policy proposals are in line with Sinn Féin’s housing policy. Of course, correction is needed. The Government’s overall housing policy has not worked to date and will not work in the future. To think otherwise is to ignore the facts. While the Minister, Deputy Browne, gave his opinion that the Government’s housing policies are working, opinions are simply not the facts. The housing lists are growing in county and city councils throughout the State. Homelessness is growing. The generation of children raised in emergency accommodation or living long term in hotel rooms is growing. Those are the facts. There has been a 35% increase in those needing emergency accommodation in my home county of Louth in just one year. That is a fact. It gives me no pleasure to say any of this. For the common good, I want every Government housing and homelessness policy to be effective for every single person on the housing list, for every one of the hidden homeless, for every family in a homeless hub, and for all of those in emergency accommodation. I want the policies to work, but they do not and will not. To think they will work is to ignore the facts.

The Housing Commission has urged the Government to adopt its proposals for more new homes. We and the other Opposition parties have put forward our proposals to deliver more homes and to put a roof over every citizen’s head. The Government amendment to this Private Members’ motion is more of the same lines repeated, denying facts and again not addressing the issue. The Government needs to course-correct on its housing and homeless policies now. It needs to enact an emergency response that this Private Members' motion is calling for, not for the Opposition or for those of us who are advocating for this, rather for the more than 15,000 homeless people, of whom nearly 5,000 are children, for the tens of thousands of people languishing on local authority housing waiting lists and for the young generation who is locked out of home ownership in this country.

Natasha Newsome Drennan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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We are in the midst of a housing crisis that is worsening month by month. It is the actions of this Government, its refusal to listen to experts and its insistence that the market will provide that has accelerated this crisis so rapidly. All we see from this Government is its head in the sand as it refuses to admit the market has failed.

These actions have failed rural Ireland so severely on housing. I look across my home county of Kilkenny where the Government’s failure to invest in modern, fit-for-purpose water and sewage facilities has ensured that large banks of land prime for building are left unusable. Bennettsbridge is the next town to see service upgrades but these works are not planned to start until 2029. Until these works are completed, communities in south Kilkenny, like my own village of Knocktopher as well as Ballyhale and Mullinavat, will see no developments being built. This is having a devastating impact on communities. It is pulling the social cohesion of rural Ireland apart. So often I meet young families and couples who are eager to raise a family in the communities in which they were reared where their parents, uncles, aunts and cousins live, that is, their support network, but the only option they are left with is to travel far from that community. As a result of the actions of the Government, we are left watching rural Ireland decline and more of our children and communities emigrate while an ageing population is left struggling for resources and care.

The knock-on effects of the failure to invest in housing across rural communities are having a crippling impact. Schools, sports teams, local shops and pubs are all left struggling. Investing in housing and infrastructure is not just about units or bricks and mortar but about insuring sustainability across rural Ireland and supporting communities that have contributed so richly to our economy and culture.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I thank Deputy Seamus Healy and his colleagues for bringing forward this motion. I have been in the Dáil for nine years and have been listening to speeches from housing Ministers in that time. I listened to the Minister’s speech today and, unfortunately, I do not think he was even interested in delivering it. He did not seem to believe in what he was saying. We are in a housing emergency but the Minister and the Government will not actually admit it.

I wish to raise two issues in the short time I have, the first of which relates to homeless services in my own city of Limerick. Every single night of the week – and we are into the second year of this now – homeless services are full. We are short of spaces and people are being turned away every single night. All the hostels are full. I had to ring the out of hours number for emergency accommodation the other night due to a house fire of a local authority tenant. She was made homeless due to an accidental house fire. I was told they had no access to funding outside of office hours. How ridiculous was that? The council then came back to me and said it had to wait for a fire report before it could house the person. The house was actually burnt down. I saw it myself; it was actually burnt to the ground. That is an easy demonstration of how chaotic and how under-resourced it is. While the staff who work there do their best, they cannot do it without the resources. The Government has not given the resources. As we speak, and in the context of the figures the Government recently gave us, there are 500 adults and 224 children in Limerick city in emergency accommodation.

The second issue I wish to raise with the Minister, which I raised with him before, is the issue of local authority voids. For people who do not know what they are, they are local authority houses that are boarded up. It is not fair on people who are waiting on housing lists to see those boarded up for a number of years. It is very unfair to people living next door to them because they often become, as I said before, magnets for antisocial behaviour, litter dumping and all sorts of stuff.

In response to a parliamentary question given to me last week, the Minister said, “Under the voids programme, there is no upper cap that can be spent on an individual dwelling [and here is the crux that comes] providing the overall average per dwelling of €11,000 is maintained.” That means local authorities do not have money to do it. The Minister is well aware of that. I am asking him to change that. He also committed to review that. The sooner he does so, the better.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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By every single metric and by every single part of the housing strategy, this Government has failed. It has failed because of its over-reliance on private developers and investments funds that undermine its ability to deliver genuinely affordable housing at scale. It is clear as can be stated that we need much more State-led investment. When will the Government admit that the private market has zero interest in solving the housing crisis and providing genuine affordable housing? It is only about profit for it. We simply cannot continue into the future with the huge transfer of money into the hands of private landlords. Approximately €1 billion per year is spent on HAP. The current rates are so wide off the private market rents that it is now virtually impossible to rent whatever little properties are available on HAP.

I spoke last week on the fears of people in private rented accommodation with regard to rent pressure zones. People are absolutely terrified that controls are going to be removed without some form of protection. What is needed is an assurance that those people, who are one pay cheque away from homelessness, will not be joining the 15,000 people and 4,500 children in homeless accommodation and that the Government will put the people’s interests before market interests.

I will say, however, and it was raised earlier, that the Minister has a chance to change the narrative in the context of his tenure as Minister. Fingal County Council has provided a pathway to thousands of homes along the N3 where there is a train station, the M50 and a massive piece of land. It is looking for help, support and investment. The Minister can give a commitment today to Fingal County Council to show that he will be a different housing Minister from previous housing Ministers. If he does not, however, then he will just be another Minister in a long line of housing Ministers who have left people in homelessness, left people unable to pay for an affordable house, and left the thousands and thousands of people who have left this country unable to ever return.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Is léir do gach duine go bhfuil éigeandáil tithíochta ann. Caithfidh mé súil ar ghné amháin toisc go bhfuil roinnt de m’am imithe. If the Government regarded this as a housing emergency, it would be funding regeneration projects to the hilt to make sure that those public sites would have public, social and affordable housing.

We now have a situation where the Dublin City Council CEO has said he is putting a three-year pause on regeneration projects in this city because of a lack of central government funding. I cannot figure out where the housing emergency is, or where it sits in the Minister's brain, if the Government cannot even fund those projects, which involve public land with social and affordable houses on it.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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One hundred and twenty adults in County Waterford are officially recorded as homeless, according to the latest figures published by the Department. There are 109 children in emergency accommodation across the wider south-east region. The Minister and I both know that is just the tip of the iceberg. A whole generation has been locked out of home ownership and it seems is fated to a lifetime of paying exorbitant rents or leaving Ireland altogether to live, work and raise their families abroad. Not only is this housing catastrophe and emergency having huge personal impacts on people and their families and sounding the death knell of many a rural community, it is affecting the ability of public services to recruit and retain personnel and impacting our economic competitiveness.

We will no doubt hear an awful lot from the Minister's side of the House about economic competitiveness over the coming days, but what is the Government's response to the housing emergency? There has been a cut of more than €100 million for new-build social and affordable this year, and delay after delay when it comes to progressing social, affordable and cost rental projects, including much-needed affordable housing in Ardmore, a mixed development in Dungarvan, and a very small but significant and important housing scheme at An Sean Phobal in Gaeltacht na nDéise, which was put through the Department's streamlined, fast-track approval process almost four years ago. There has yet to be any movement on that. Tá ár gceantracha Ghaeltacha i gcruachás de dheasca na géarchéime seo. Tá easpa tola, easpa tuisceana agus easpa ghnímh i gceist. Beart de réir briathar atá de dhíth orainn anois.

We need a change of direction and we need to truly recognise this as the emergency it is for our country and society.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Ar dtús, ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an ngrúpa neamhspleách agus an Teachta Healy as ucht an rún seo a chur faoi bhráid na Dála inniu. Molaim agus molann Páirtí an Lucht Oibre an rún seo. Tá a fhios ag chuile dhuine sa Teach seo go bhfuil an chruachás agus an ghéarchéim ag éirí níos measa, agus caithfidh an Rialtas rud éigin difriúil a dhéanamh.

I support the general thrust of the motion. I thank the Independent and Parties Technical Group for bringing it forward. In my short time as a TD, this is the fourth time that a motion in this vein has been tabled. I would love if this time we could see some genuine engagement from the Government other than the standard countermotion that states everything is going okay and we should just continue in the way we have been. Last Friday, we heard the figure of 15,378 people who were now homeless. This includes 500 people in my city of Limerick, among them 224 children. My local authority has more than 107 tenant in situ cases on hold. It tells me that, given the changes to the scheme, it will be lucky to be able to do 20 to 25 this year.

I wrote to the Minister last Friday setting out a number of practical measures that could and should be implemented in order to try to meaningfully address this. The first measure, which I implore the Government to take on board, is to pass the homeless families Bill that Jan O'Sullivan introduced in 2017. There was talk last year that this Bill was going to be included in the Government's miscellaneous housing Bill. It never made the Bill, but it is an important and practical measure. I have begun the steps of restoring this Bill to the Order Paper, which was supported by Fianna Fáil when it was in opposition. Under the current legislation governing local authorities, children have no official rights. The existing legislation is 35 years old. It reflects a different world, one where homelessness was something that only affected single, adult men. The Bill is a simple measure that would mean local authorities would have to assess the needs of children in homeless families as part of their decision-making. It would require local authorities to assess the suitability of alternative accommodation when a homeless family declines an offer of emergency accommodation because it is not suitable. It is designed to ensure that emergency accommodation meets the best interests of children, looking at issues such as access to schools, the need for child support workers, homework, play areas, appointments, etc. Some local authorities are quite good in this regard but others are not. We need consistency across the board. This Bill has already passed Committee Stage. I sincerely ask the Government to work with us on a cross-party basis to get it passed.

Another important provision in this motion that I clearly support is the need to enact the recommendations of the Kenny report in respect of law. The Kenny report has been lying on a shelf for 52 years now. The Labour Party introduced legislation in 2021 to enact its recommendations. We know land is at the centre of the housing crisis. Many of the problems we face at present could have been avoided had this report been implemented. The report's recommendation that local authorities be given the power to compulsorily purchase land at its existing use value plus a 25% gratuity is very clear. This would immediately end the ability of land hoarders and speculators to make enormous profits at the expense of first-time buyers.

I also agree on the need for a massive investment programme for social and affordable housing on public land. The Government is putting record investment into housing but never before has a Government invested so much and, by any objective, got such a poor return. The borrowing capacity of local authorities throughout the country is only €118 million. The Housing Commission report is very clear in its recommendation that 20% of our housing stock should be social and cost rental. Currently, approximately 9% of our housing stock is social and cost rental. I ask the Government to take on this recommendation.

I also urge the Minister to introduce a new social housing Act as a matter of urgency. I raised this as a parliamentary question and received a reply indicating that the Department was assessing the report of the Housing Commission. That was published almost 12 months ago. There is a clear need to specify and protect the social housing sector and remove any threat of privatisation.

I support the need to create a State housing infrastructure investment fund to unlock the €160 billion in Irish household savings to invest in social and affordable housing. This is something the Labour Party supports. It was in our manifesto. We propose to do this through the development of a housing solidarity bond operated via a State savings bond with an attractive interest rate to redirect private investment from vulture funds towards housing developments.

I urge the Government to take action on short-term lets before 2026. Under the previous Government, a Bill to introduce controls over the sector, including the establishment of a register, was proposed, but was delayed and revised and never made it to the floor of the Dáil. It now needs approval from this Government to proceed with full drafting. I ask for this to be hurried.

On rent controls, we know that rent pressure zones have been a failure by any objective measure. They are a blunt instrument and are frequently flouted because rents go up by more than the rate at which they are supposed to under the legislation. I urge the Government not to introduce a halfway house, whereby rents can just recalibrate between tenancies. While RPZs have been very ham-fisted, they are the only bit of protection renters have in the private rented market at the moment. My concern is that if we go by a model whereby rent can recalibrate between tenancies, it will increase the termination of tenancies in order to increase rental income.

We will end in a worse situation than we are in at present.

I raised the issue of the fall-off in apartment construction with the Minister in the Dáil two weeks ago. Dublin is the second most expensive city after Zurich. Belfast, which is approximately 140 km away and uses similar supply chains, is the second cheapest city. We need to examine how people are able to deliver apartments in Northern Ireland, which is on this island and only two hours up the road, at a much lower cost. Until we address the issue of apartment viability, we will not be able to be able to meaningfully address the housing crisis.

I know the Minister was in Limerick last Friday. I urge the Government to scale up the ambition of the Land Development Agency, particularly in terms of the Colbert Quarter, which is a brownfield site. We know there are difficulties in activating brownfield sites but this one has the capacity to deliver 2,800 homes. That site has category three long term development viability, which means nothing will happen with it in the short and medium terms. That site is key to solving the housing crisis in Limerick because so much land there is being transferred to the Land Development Agency. We need to see that land serviced and activated because of rents and house prices in Limerick. Rents there increased by 19.7% last year. The housing crisis is trending worse in Limerick than in the rest of the country because we are not building enough housing, be it social and affordable or private housing.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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The housing crisis situation is an emergency and I ask the Minister to take this motion on board. I thank its proposers for tabling it. There are many ideas in it that we in the Social Democrats have put forward.

It was ten years ago, when I was involved with trade union groups and housing campaigns, that we called on Fine Gael, which was in government at the time, to declare the housing crisis an emergency. Every year since, homelessness has risen, except of course during a Covid year, and we have seen house prices and rents rise to record levels. Why have this and the previous Governments never treated the housing crisis as an emergency?

I understand that the Minister is new and is bringing his own experience and perspective, but I am concerned that I do not see any major change in direction or any major reset of policy, which the Housing Commission called for. I do not see any emergency action in response.

The problem is that the housing crisis has become normalised. The level of homelessness we see has become normalised. The generation stuck as adults infantilised in their childhood bedrooms has become normalised. We have a generation who have lost hope of ever having homes of their own. They have lost hope in a future of being independent or of starting a family. We see people delay getting married and having children, sometimes to the point at which their dream becomes impossible. People have contacted me to tell me that. They are deeply upset and traumatised by the loss of their dreams of having children because they could not get homes of their own.

The Minister is new, but he has to accept that this situation is completely intolerable, unacceptable and an emergency. I challenge his claim that we all need to agree on the continued success of Housing for All. If this is success, I would hate to see what failure looks like. I do not think the Minister should just repeat words the civil servants are putting to him. The Minister needs to challenge the Department of housing and say that this is not good enough, where we are at is not acceptable and we are not making an emergency response. We saw an emergency response during Covid when the private health system was brought into the public sector and told that we needed to put everything at our disposal into solving this emergency. We do not do that currently. The Minister has not brought in the entire private sector and asked what we are doing, where is the housing being delivered, where are the hotels being built, where is our construction capacity and how we can ensure it is actually delivering homes. Why are we building aparthotels when we need homes to be built? We have capacity in this country but it is not being put to use building affordable housing.

I will also highlight one of the policy narratives being developed. I have been analysing this policy for many years, that of global real estate investors and institutional investors. They were brought in by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael over the past ten years to buy up, fund and build rental housing. A core policy of Rebuilding Ireland and Housing for All has been to bring in institutional investment. Department of housing representatives attended the global real estate event in France recently, again. The Taoiseach said earlier this year, very clearly, that we needed to look at rent caps and rent pressure zones in order to make investment in rental housing viable. We know it was code for what the investor funds and institutional investors had been pushing for, which is getting rid of rent caps. The Minister has also spoken about tax breaks and about how we need tax incentives and tax breaks to make investment in apartments viable. The collapse in apartment development is because institutional investors have decided it is not sufficiently profitable to invest here. This is not just the case in Ireland, but also in the US, Germany and the UK. Build to rent as an investment has become less profitable because of rising interest rates. It is not about our rent regulation system, but the wider macroeconomic situation. When institutional investors are such an unstable, unreliable source of financing for housing, why does it seem that the Government will remove the very rent caps that are protecting renters to try to incentivise more of this investment? Why is the Minister speaking about tax breaks for institutional investors? Why are we not taking a different approach?

I discussed the potential impact of the removal of rent caps on RTÉ radio last week when I said it was clear that, if the rent caps were lifted, it would lead to a wave of evictions, rent rises and, inevitably, higher rates of poverty and homelessness among renters. The representative from the landlords' organisation, the IPOA, said in response: "I suspect poverty and homelessness would increase" as a result. Does the Minister agree with that response? Does he accept poverty and homelessness will rise if the rent caps are removed?

I am not sure if the Minister is familiar with the term "regulatory capture". It is a concept in public policy that refers to the excessive influence of special interests on regulators' operations and decisions. The result is that, instead of regulators serving the public interest, they serve the special interests. To me, it is very clear that, in housing policy, the Government and the Department of housing have been suffering from a classic case of regulatory capture by different property and financial interests for a long time. From the Celtic tiger boom, to the crash, to institutional investors, it is a clear case that housing policy has been driven by what will make housing sufficiently profitable for the market, developers and investor funds rather than what is the way to deliver affordable housing for the people.

There are many ways to deliver affordable housing.

We set out in our manifesto a way to deliver 15,000 additional genuinely affordable homes. The Minister said we were doing all we could. Why is he limiting what the Government can invest in housing? There are billions of euro of a surplus. Why are we not putting that into local authorities and not-for-profit housing bodies to deliver more affordable homes?

Why will the Government not treat housing as a human right? Why has it done a U-turn on Fianna Fáil's commitment to deliver a referendum to guarantee a right to housing? In 2021, Fianna Fáil brought forward a motion in the Seanad to amend the Constitution to ensure that every citizen had the right to housing. It was noted at the time by the Fianna Fáil housing spokesperson, Mary Fitzpatrick, that the right to housing was about the State making a permanent commitment to every citizen that he or she would have access to a secure and affordable home. In May 2022, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, said it was important to hold this referendum, as it would underpin people's housing rights. In May 2024, he announced that an interdepartmental group would be set up to consider plans to hold referendum on the right to housing. Why has the Government moved away from treating housing as a human right? There was not one mention of housing being a human right in the programme for Government. There has been no response to the Housing Commission's very clear recommendation that a constitutional amendment should be brought forward to enshrine housing as a human right. Why is the Government not moving on that referendum? We need to treat housing as a human right. Part of the reason we are in this crisis is because housing is treated as an investment asset, as a commodity, rather than a home and a human right, which is what it should be. It should be underpinning all our policies and approaches.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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I wish the Minister well in his position and I look forward to working with him. I have been in construction all my life and I want to give the Minister a bit of advice and to ask him for his help. Why can we not extend the fee waiver for planning permission to help people who are building their own houses, which means they are not depending on the State and also helps address inflation costs? Why can we not reintroduce that? Just to show the inflation costs we have at the moment for housing, it cost €121 per square foot in 2021. At the time, a 2,000 sq. ft house cost €240,000, plus VAT for the Government at €32,400. That same house today will cost €200 per square foot, meaning that the same house costs €400,000 and the Government gets €54,000 in VAT directly from that. Why are we not giving something back to people who are building their own houses?

The cap for the help to buy scheme is too low at €450,000. Most of the houses have moved past that and the people who were put on the help to buy scheme have gone far past that. Someone might build a house tomorrow and pay the builder €400,000. That person might get a valuation on the house and a valuer could value it at €550,000 because the people next door sold their house at €550,000. It is done on valuation and the help to buy scheme does not help those people.

Regarding infrastructure, when will the Government audit Uisce Éireann? I have been in construction all of my life and we visit plants to look at them. Let us consider the running costs of the Uisce Éireann plants over the past five years. Some of these plants have not been maintained. Its electricity costs have increased because it has not replaced aerators in the system. As there has been no maintenance, electricity costs are rising. Uisce Éireann is coming to the Government cap in hand claiming it has no money because the costs have gone out of control. It is deliberately not maintaining some plants. It has them overrun to fool the Government.

I invite the Minister to come down to visit any plant he wants. We will look at them to see what has happened over the four or five years Uisce Éireann has been running them and see where it is not telling the Government the truth and looking for extra money. I want value for money from Uisce Éireann. If it can be done in other European countries and projects can be delivered there for half the price they are delivered here, that is a problem. We need to question that to make sure the money the Government invests in housing goes further, and then we can get delivery that helps the Government and helps the people I represent as well. That is what I want from the Minister, so I need his help.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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I thank colleagues on the Independent benches for tabling this motion. The Minister probably knows that the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. However, the definition of madness has to be this programme for Government and this Housing for All scheme that the Minister has his faith in. Today, 15,378 people are homeless and 4,653 of those are children. I am ashamed to be standing here. I am sickened that we have our own children on the streets. I suspect those figures are not correct and are much higher than we believe.

I will share with the Minister a text I received this morning that is just a typical text that comes in every day to our offices.

My name is [I will leave out the name]. I'm resident here Mallow, a RAS house tenant for 20 years. My apartment is presently going up for sale and I have to vacate by April 13th 2025. I have literally nowhere to go. Can you please help me?

These are the messages that are coming into my office. As one of my colleagues said, this affected 21 of the 27 constituents he met on Monday. That is the reality of life for people. At 27, I was able to purchase my own home. I now meet people aged 40 or 45 living in box rooms. Even though they are earning significant salaries, they are not able to purchase their own homes and are stuck in their parents' houses. I meet people every day of the week who tell me they cannot get on the social housing list because Cork City Council, Cork County Council or Limerick City and County Council have told them they are adequately housed because they are living with their grandparents. That is not being adequately housed at 35 years of age.

We also have a generation of people who lost their houses in 2007 and 2008. They are now back working after losing their businesses and their properties. They are paying €1,500, €1,800 or €2,200 on rent for apartments. What will happen when those people reach 66 years of age with no access to finance, no possibility of getting a loan and no possibility of redeeming their credit ratings? They will be back on social housing lists. A gentleman rang me yesterday to say that the house he was involved with had fallen through. He is now 69 years of age and has been told by the local authority to come back in two or three years and it may be able to help him. The programme is not working and the Minister must fix this.

I am surprised when I look at the empty benches and all these people screaming for speaking time. No Government TDs wanted to speak on this issue.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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I will use less than my 90 seconds because we are pressed for time. I welcome Deputy Healy's motion, which gives us another opportunity to talk about the important issue of housing, in particular the fundamental point that is the five-year emergency plan, which I absolutely support. We need to take a multifaceted approach. I have made a few suggestions before. A couple of months ago, I mentioned using gardens as a starter home for a couple or for a retirement home. It is only a small aspect but we need to look at the bigger picture. My colleague mentioned water infrastructure. Only a certain number of large towns will be able to facilitate rapid-build, large-capacity housing. We need to talk to Uisce Éireann and focus on those areas where house building will take place.

We need to massively invest in Dublin city centre, from a safety point of view but also in terms of the housing crisis. I reiterate to the Minister, whom I congratulate on his appointment, that there are many houses in settled areas with one person living in a four-bedroom house. There should be a scheme to enable the top part of that house to be sold and possibly the other part of the house to be sold at a later date so that young couples can move in, and as their family expands, they can purchase the other part of the house.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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Mayo has a huge issue with dereliction and vacancy. Mayo has the highest level of dereliction in the country at 14%. Its vacancy rate is 12%, the second highest in the country.

I want to raise the issue of dereliction, particularly around the protected structures and listed buildings. Consider the old Bank Corner on James Street in Claremorris, for example. The owners tried to redevelop this corner. Could I have the Minister's attention? Unfortunately, the developer tried to redevelop this area but the fact the building was listed effectively made the proposition for the project economically unviable. The irony is that we are going to preserve these buildings until they fall apart. It is critically important in town centres where we have protected buildings that the local authorities work with the developers. We need more subsidiarity in relation to this. It is totally wrong that the Office of the Planning Regulator in Dublin can dictate what is happening in Claremorris. Local politicians and local TDs know what is best for the town. This area of the town has been blighted with dereliction. It is a corner and a building that needs to be redeveloped and yet the protected status is actually making this development economically unviable. It is like trying to drive with the handbrake on. We need to ensure that this development can get off the ground. The town needs it. We need more accommodation in the town.

This comes at a time when this Government, and the last Government, de-zoned a significant amount of land around the town. Now we are making it more difficult to develop the town centre as well. If this issue is not rectified, this building will fall into further decay and crumble. Will the Minister intervene in relation to this? We need more subsidiarity. We need to work with the local councillors, politicians, planners, and the developer to make sure this building is viable and that we can rehouse more people in the centre of the town.

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this motion. For clarity, Deputy O'Flynn referred to no Government Members bothering to show up here. We are here-----

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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Where are they?

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I show up every single week. The Deputy knows well how the speaking slots work here. Until last week we were locked out of this so I am glad to be one of the first-----

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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The Deputy protests too much.

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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-----Members to avail of this because we have a democratic mandate as well. There were a hundred issues that I would like to have raised last week but I got two minutes speaking time in the entire Dáil week to speak about legislation from the 1820 to the 1850 period. How irrelevant when I want to speak on topics like this. I am glad that anyone who is watching at home can look at the screen and see what is happening here today. We show up here every single day of every single week.

I will now speak to the matter we are debating. I put it to the Minister, Deputy Browne, that it is conceivable that in the next 12 months, many of the 112,000 Ukrainian war refugees who are in this country will go home when peace is brokered, whatever that peace deal looks like. It is important that when they go home, we immediately look at the 112,000 accommodation units they are taking up and look at bringing in people on work visas to backfill our construction sector. We are totally lacking people, particularly in the wet trades but also in skills like block laying. This is a huge impediment to getting houses. Imagine if we were to grant 112,000 work permits to people with skills to come into this country and build houses. Over many years we have sent trade missions overseas for the Irish dairy sector, the Irish beef sector or the tech and pharma sectors. It is time that our Ministers go overseas looking to bring in a workforce here that can backfill where we have shortages.

There is another important point, which others have mentioned in the course of today's debate. When I speak about County Clare we are not lacking in zoned land and road networks but the basic stuff we lack would be water and sewerage infrastructure, the very constraints that make housing very difficult to achieve and deliver. The Minister's Department has approved a pilot scheme. In County Clare we are waiting for schemes in Cooraclare and Broadford to progress. Will the Minister's Department push these forward? Without those schemes houses cannot be built. We are ready to house people in County Clare but we need the basic infrastructure. I thank the Minister.

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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There is a growing need for low-cost sites. It will help in addressing the housing crisis. It might not be the only solution but it will give young people a chance to secure their first home in every part of the country, especially in my county of Kerry. The area is under significant pressure, including around towns such as Killarney, Cahirsiveen, Killorglin and Castleisland. We have huge issues with planning. I like the idea the Minister mentioned about introducing a maverick. I hope he or she will be successful. It will require something like that to address the housing crisis. We need to free up planning permission for our own people who are landowners' and farmers' sons and daughters. As I said before, it is bordering on criminal that people who have their own land, where there are no traffic hazards and no percolation or wastewater treatment issues, cannot obtain planning permission. We are forcing people onto our housing lists. This needs to be addressed.

Another issue to address are the national primary and secondary routes in this context. Unless a road is under the speed limit of 60 km/h one cannot obtain planning permission. Where there are existing laneways and roadways people should be able to access the national primary or secondary roads. It is creating no extra traffic. The people I talk about are coming in and out of those laneways and roads every day of the week. They only want to live at home, work at home and live near their family and friends.

There is a need for planning reform. We need to give young people the opportunity to build their own home on their own land. At the moment it is like climbing a mountain with no path. It is frustrating, it is discouraging and it is impossible for young people today.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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Deputy O' Flynn said there are no Government TDs here. Have you not been calling me a Government TD for the last three months? It is ridiculous. I do not have sympathy-----

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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Go back to him.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I am here now. I do not have sympathy-----

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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Go back to him. Go back to your boyo.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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The Minister has a huge task ahead of him and I wish him the best of luck in his role. I urge everyone from all sides of this House to work together as we see in the committees. We are here for one reason, which is to work for the Irish people. As a newly elected TD, it is ridiculous what have seen in here for the last few months.

There is something clearly wrong with regulations where developers can pay adjoining residents considerable sums to not make objections. A recent article by the Irish Independent said that planning for 20,000 homes will expire in the next two years. I urge the Government to look at this. The permissions are set to expire over the coming two years even though the demand for homes is dramatically exceeding supply. This is according to a new report from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland. Its recent housing market monitor said that 75,000 homes can be completed in 2025 and 2026 but this is well below the targets the report says are needed.

This is the key issue this House will be defined by when we go knocking on doors in five years' time. We need to have a Covid-level response. Tick every single box, try things and be bold. I really urge the Minister and my colleagues in government to do that because we need to get that done. I really appreciate the Minister listening, and I urge him to read to the motion.

Gillian Toole (Meath East, Independent)
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Go raibh maith ag an Leas-Cheann Comhairle, ag an Aire agus ag Teachta Healy chun a bheith in ann caint sa díospóireacht seo. I will make just a couple of points possibly by way of solution. Number one is to deal with the most recent planning Act around commencements. Currently when planning permission is granted there is five years to construct. If the commencement period was altered to within 18 months anybody applying for planning permission would already have financing place. We have an active situation in Ratoath, County Meath, where it not about land hoarding but it is actually planning permission hoarding. The permission is being sat on and then moved on just at the eleventh hour.

A second possible suggestion is vis-à-vis the live-over-the-shop scheme, which is part of the programme for Government. Similar to section 23 in the past, it would have very targeted conditions, possibly age friendly or possibly housing appropriate for ages 25 to 45. This would be multipurpose in terms of passive surveillance in town and city centres. It would also bring older people closer to communities, to medical services and to all of the State services they might require. A possible amendment to the planning Act would be required vis-à-vis fire safety regulations, which is all possible.

There are two examples I would cite. I will always look to other jurisdictions, whether it is in respect of neurolinguistic programming or otherwise, and ask who is in a similar situation and where best practice is. The Danish andelsboligmodel entails a type of mutual homeownership but specifically involves repurposing former commercial or heritage properties. Effectively, there is a collective mortgage rather than individual mortgages, and mutual home ownership society members contribute financially on the basis of their income levels. A typical contribution is 35% of net household income.

Closer to home is the example of the low-impact living affordable community, LILAC, project in Leeds. Bizarrely, I was given this information seven or eight years ago at a briefing that former Minister, Eoghan Murphy held here for councillors. Again, the model is based on mutual home ownership. This is an area that is forgotten and that I referenced in my contribution on the programme for Government. Hostel provision in the commuter counties is a sad reflection of where we are but it is necessary in the stepwise approach to accommodation. County Wicklow, in particular, is served, as is County Kildare, but County Meath has no hostel accommodation. It is not that this is a direction we want to be going in, but where people are vulnerable with addiction and mental health problems and where there are revolving-door circumstances, a hostel is probably one of the first steps in providing emergency accommodation.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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I congratulate the Leas-Cheann Comhairle on his elevation to his new position, which is long overdue. I wish him good luck with it.

I welcome the Other Members' Questions slot. It is not so long ago that I was on the backbenches. I recall how frustrating it was to get speaking time on Private Members' business. If I was lucky, I might have got a minute from a Minister. Some of the best contributions here today have been from backbenchers, including Deputies Crowe, Cahill and Toole. I take Deputy Heneghan's point 100% on activating planning permissions that are at risk of expiry. This is something we have to take on board. I certainly welcome the slot. It was worth fighting for.

I thank all the Members for their contributions. I echo the comments made by the Minister and reassert the Government's commitment to tackling the challenges in the housing sector. We know these challenges are having a genuine impact on people's lives and understand the urgency and need to ensure sufficient numbers of homes are delivered to ensure people are safe and secure in affordable homes of their choosing. We are working tirelessly to address these challenges and implement policies that make a positive difference. While there is still much to do, the Independents and Smaller Parties Technical Group and Opposition inputs here this morning do not fairly represent the efforts and progress made to date. Indeed, some of the proposals put forward in the motion would be more likely to deepen and perpetuate the housing crisis rather than resolve it. Let me touch on some of them.

The motion calls for a blanket ban on rent increases and no further rent increases. We propose that the more appropriate measure is a more considered approach to regulating the private rental sector, including any recalibration of the current rent pressure zones that may be required, which will seek to strike the most appropriate balance between protecting affordability for tenants and increasing the supply of new rental homes through new private investment and construction. A blanket ban on rent increases would worsen the situation.

Furthermore, the motion calls for a ban on institutional purchasing of houses and apartments other than by local authorities and approved housing bodies. The reality is that the latest CSO data on market purchases of homes by non-households, including institutional investors, show the State was the largest non-household purchaser of homes in 2023, having acquired almost half of the 12,000 or so homes bought by certain purchasers, and that the owner-occupier guarantee introduced by the Government in May 2021 has succeeded in preventing the inappropriate purchase of homes by a single purchaser, securing those homes for purchase by homeowners, with planning permission granted for 55,600 homes and with conditions prohibiting bulk purchase by, or multiple sale to, a single purchaser between May 2021 and November 2024.

The amendment affirms the Government's effort to “diversify sources of investment, noting the level of investment required in the long-term cannot be solely the responsibility of the State, and it will also require a very significant level of private investment, including appropriate institutional capital investment, which is essential for the delivery of critically needed private rental homes”. I will speak on those points further.

The motion claims the Government is not doing enough. However, it is very clear that we have securely laid the foundation and built a housing pipeline that will allow us to continue to ramp up delivery in the coming years. As the Minister highlighted, more than 133,000 new homes were built and delivered between 2020 and 2024, with 92,500 of these delivered between 2022 and 2024, exceeding the Housing for All target for the period by 5,500 or so new homes – an almost 50% increase on the quantum delivered in the previous three-year period.

The measures introduced under Housing for All have helped to establish a solid platform to scale-up delivery further in the short term and secure a sustainable level of supply that will help us to meet fully unmet and emerging demand. Indeed, the past three years have seen an average of 31,000 homes delivered annually. The Government is fully committed to delivering social, affordable and cost-rental homes at scale and to continuing accelerating housing supply across all tenures, with overall capital funding available of almost €6.8 billion for the delivery of homes in 2025. This will further increase the availability of affordable homes to buy and rent, securing a sustainable housing supply and building vibrant, liveable communities.

Last year's dip in new home completions was certainly disappointing but we remain optimistic that the building blocks we have put in place will bear fruit and that with the appropriately targeted action by the Government, many of the 100,000 commencement notices lodged over the past two years will translate into new home completions. A continuing increased supply of new homes will help ease the impact of recent price increases and bring stability to the market, with Housing for All supporting access to affordable housing and assisting those who aspire to buy their own homes.

From the launch of Housing for All to September last year, more than 10,000 affordable housing supports were delivered through AHBs, local authorities and the Land Development Agency and were facilitated through the first home scheme and vacant property refurbishment grant. Moreover, as the Minister pointed out, the level of affordable housing supports provided in 2024 will outstrip the delivery of 2023. Affordable housing schemes, including cost-rental schemes, are now operating at scale. This momentum will continue as a pipeline is developed by local authorities, AHBs and the LDA.

The supply of new-build social homes also continues to be at a higher level than for many years. Our ambition is to deliver much more, and we will continue to do so in partnership with local authorities and other delivery partners. While of course the dip in overall delivery in 2024 was disappointing, as the Minister pointed out, we remain on a clear upward trajectory and it is important to put the 2024 figures into context. It is clear that with the year-on-year increase in the number of houses built, plummeting apartment completions on the back of an almost complete retrenchment of institutional capital was the root cause of the dip in overall delivery last year.

I echo the Minister's sentiment that the level of investment required in the long term cannot be the sole responsibility of the State. We also require considerable private investment, including appropriate institutional capital, which is essential for the delivery of apartments and private rented homes. The State has stepped in to fill the gap in the interim, but continuing to do so over the longer term is neither desirable or sustainable. A vibrant affordable private rental sector with abundant supply and choice can be delivered only with a sizeable level of private capital investment. To this end, we will also engage with domestic lenders, ensuring the banking sector is maximising its lending capacity to support the development of new housing nationwide, especially for brownfield sites and for small builders.

Homelessness remains a serious concern and a top priority of the Government. It is a complex issue in which causal factors and family circumstances can vary considerably, as do the responses needed. Interrelated are other areas of the housing system and broader social and healthcare policy and service delivery. A whole-of-government approach is required in the response. This is how we are working, and we will continue to do so.

Supporting households experiencing homelessness remains a priority of the Government, and the programme for Government reaffirms Ireland's commitment to working to eradicate homelessness by 2030. Budget 2025 allocated more than €300 million to this end, up €61 million on 2024.

The motion calls on the Government to fund local authorities and approved housing bodies "to implement a tenant in-situ scheme, with a minimum purchase target of 2,500 homes per year".

My Department is working closely with local authorities and their service delivery partners to support households to exit homelessness to a tenancy such as tenancies in the local authority and AHB properties, or in the private rental market supported by the HAP as well as the tenant in situ scheme.

In light of the challenges in addressing homelessness, Government introduced the tenant in situ acquisitions in 2023 as a temporary, short-term measure to address the issue. This was continued in 2024 and is being extended into 2025. Since the introduction of the tenant in situ programme in March 2023, more than 3,100 second-hand homes have been purchased with approximately 2,000 of those being tenant in situ acquisitions. The Government agrees it is important local authorities have the option to purchase a property where a social housing tenant is at risk of homelessness due to a notice of termination. However, local authorities must also use other options such as allocating a social housing tenancy to social tenants in the private sector on HAP or RAS on receipt of a valid notice of termination.

In the motion and in Opposition contributions, it is never acknowledged that Government continues to exist an unprecedented level of investment in housing. It will amount to €6.8 billion in 2025. There were 92,500 homes delivered in the period between 2022 and 2024.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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Are they private homes?

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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What about value for money?

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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That is a 50% increase on the three years prior to that.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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Is that value for money? Come on.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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Apartment construction has reduced but the measures proposed in the motion here would actually reduce it even further.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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No infrastructure, no houses. There is no infrastructure.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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We have to face up to the reality; we need private investment. If we are to deliver apartments at scale-----

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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There is no infrastructure. The Minister of State should talk about something he knows about. He knows nothing about building.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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-----we need private investment. The equation is simple.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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He knows nothing about building.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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In order to get to the housing targets we need, we are talking about a €20 billion per annum investment.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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I live it every day. The Minister of State knows nothing about it.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Stop trying to shout people down.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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The Minister of State knows nothing about value for money. He knows nothing about building.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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The current investment by the State-----

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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Go away. The Minister of State should talk about something he knows about.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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-----is €6.8 billion. How do we make up that €13 billion gap? Is the State going to contribute that €13 billion in the context of seeing tariffs introduced and economic uncertainty?

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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It is a waste of money.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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We need to get real here.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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The Minister of State needs to get real.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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Private investment is needed. The tenant in situ scheme has been extended but many Members said the scheme is over. It has been extended into 2025.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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The Minister has underfunded it.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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We cannot be any way clearer about that.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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He has underfunded it. There is no budget for local authorities.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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There is an emergency and we will use every lever possible to increase supply, make houses affordable and to end homelessness.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
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I thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, and congratulate you on your elevation to high office. It is well deserved.

The starting point, which the Minister of State will have to accept, is that house prices, rents and homelessness have skyrocketed. He cannot argue with that. A total of 51 people were homeless in County Laois in February. House prices have gone up 11.6%. The number of new homes is down. The number of new homes was down last year and 10,000 fewer than the Government parties promised during the election campaign. We have a housing crisis but is not being treated as a crisis by Government.

Average rents across the State are €1,956 per month. That is a month's wages for most people and that is 43% higher than 2020. We have 143,000 on social housing waiting lists and the current overall housing shortage, according to the Housing Commission and not according to us, is 235,000. Tens of thousands of couples and families are just above the income threshold for social housing, which is €35,000 in Laois. The Government is not looking after this cohort of people who are on between €35,000 and €50,000 or €60,000. They cannot get a mortgage or a local authority loan. It is a real problem. Some of them are over the age of 40 or 45 so they cannot get private finance. We have to gear up the cost-rental model for those people. I appeal to the Minister of State to do that and I say that in a constructive way because they are trapped forever in private rental accommodation and they will be pensioner renters. This will be a real problem in the years to come.

The Government needs to enact the emergency measures that are called for in the public interest to create a State housing bond. The credit unions have been saying for years that they have a lot of money on deposit that can be used to build housing. There is potentially €160 billion in savings, much of which could be used for housing schemes. They could be used for affordable purchase and cost-rental schemes and they do not all have to be used for social housing.

One of the proposals we need to examine is making finance available to small builders to build schemes in small towns such as Mountrath and Rathdowney and in some of the larger towns such as Mountmellick and Portarlington along with Portlaoise, Graiguecullen and Ballylynan.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Order, please.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
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Some of those towns have the capacity to add on small schemes. If builders got low-interest finance they could use for that, it could be done.

Why has the State not implemented the recommendations of the Kenny report from 1973, published 52 years ago? If I recall, it was actually commissioned by a Fine Gael-Labour Government and Mr. Justice Kenny set out very clearly how to keep land prices down such that development land would only be 25% above the market value of agricultural land or there would be an 80% windfall tax on the profits of development land. We have to take bold measures to force down the price of land. The Minister of State may balk at that, but can something be done in between that? We have to reduce the cost of land for building.

We also need to reduce the cost of building by mass producing. As I said last week, we need somewhere between eight and ten plans for the different types of households and household needs; large families, small families, people with disabilities, pensioners and so on. Those plans need to be used by all the local authorities for affordable housing, cost-rental and social housing. Do we really believe that people who need an affordable house to buy or a cost-rental house care if the house they are living in in County Donegal is the same as one in County Laois or Coutry Kerry or wherever else? No, they do not. I certainly would not. That is how we mass produced previously. We need to go back to doing this.

The same plans can be used. I would like the Minister and Minister of State to listen to this. When we are starting with a blank canvas on all housing schemes, the architectural fees are between 10% and 15% according to senior local authority officials. That needs to stop. The same plans will suffice and we need to use them. I appeal to the Government to do that. We need to mass produce, reduce the costs and speed up delivery.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Before Deputy Healy commences, I ask the Deputies on my right to have their parliamentary meeting outside. Have respect for the speakers that are on the floor.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
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That would be helpful.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)
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The Government's response and amendment, while not unexpected, are nonetheless hugely disappointing, and even shocking, because there is absolutely no acceptance of the depth and breadth of what is an intolerable housing emergency. This emergency started with the privatisation of the local authority house building programme by a Fianna Fáil Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, back in the early 2000s. Many of us warned then that would be the start of a huge housing crisis down the road. We were not listened to, of course, and here we find ourselves now in what is accepted by the vast majority of people in this House, on both Government and Opposition benches, to be an absolute emergency that requires emergency action.

There is no acceptance by the Government of missed housing targets; there is no acceptance of the emergency actions recommended by the Housing Commission; there is no acceptance of the need to implement the Kenny report on the price of building land; there is no acceptance that rents are too high and have to be frozen; and there is no acceptance that evictions need to be banned.

In fact, this is a Government that is in denial. That denial has consequences for ordinary families right across this country. What they mean is continued huge levels of homelessness, exorbitant rents, no security of tenure, skyrocketing house prices, 500,000 young people living in their childhood bedrooms and a huge cohort of families, which everybody in this House knows, completely locked out of the housing market. They will never be able to buy a house of their own. They are not on the housing list and they are not able to purchase a house by way of a mortgage.

The housing emergency is undermining the very fabric of Irish society and it must be addressed urgently by emergency action.

That emergency action is available, it is provided for in the Constitution and there is precedent for it.

I ask every TD in the House, both in opposition and in government, to vote in support of this emergency motion. In particular, I ask Government backbenchers, who know about this because they are contacted daily by families in intolerable situations and facing homelessness, to set aside the party whip on this occasion in the national interest and in the interest of families who are homeless. There are 15,700 people homeless, of whom 4,603 are children. I ask Government backbenchers to set aside the party whip on this issue in the national interest and vote in favour of this emergency motion on housing. Everybody knows that the housing situation cannot be turned around by the policies this Government is continuing to pursue. These policies have failed utterly over the years. I refer not just to this Government or that which preceded it but also to those way back to the early 2000s, when this housing emergency was set in train by the Taoiseach of the day, Bertie Ahern.

I commend the motion to the House and ask every TD in government and in opposition to vote in favour of it.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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In accordance with Standing Order 80(2), the division is deferred until the weekly division time this evening.