Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I understand but this relates to the core of this legislation, which we really need to address. I do not dispute anything the Minister is saying about ISIF, but it is funding private homes for mass delivery. We can accept that if we want to increase the amount of social, affordable and cost-rental housing delivery, we need voted capital expenditure. The problem is that given the numbers the Minister has presented and that underpin the SPU, voted capital expenditure increases by only €500 million approximately. That is across all sectors, not just housing. That means that if we want to address the housing crisis, we will not do so based on these numbers. It is not possible to ramp up housing unless you just provide private housing and keep the numbers of social, affordable and cost-rental houses at the same levels. It is not possible to do so with the numbers the Minister has presented in the SPU.

I do not know what the Taoiseach’s ambition is regarding the delivery of 250,000 homes over five years because he has not given a breakdown of how many would be State-supported social, affordable and cost-rental units. To meet community needs, the Government need to increase significantly the number of social houses being delivered. Also, it needs to increase significantly the numbers of cost-rental and affordable houses being delivered, because these numbers are in the ha'penny place at the minute. That requires voted capital expenditure.

It is not possible to do that at any scale under these numbers, so I challenge the Minister in that regard. We all know what is being delivered now. Under the stability programme update, capital expenditure will increase by just over €500,000 in 2027. How are we supposed to increase the number of public social, affordable and cost rental homes with that type of increase across all Departments? That is the problem and the core issue. The reason some of the windfall corporation taxes need to be used is to have that catch-up programme.