Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is very welcome back. I understand she was on a fundraising trip to the United States last week. I hope that went very well.

In terms of the two reports the Deputy mentioned, the daft.iereport and the ERSI report both add to our understanding of this issue and they are both worth a read and worthy of consideration. I had the opportunity on the way in this morning to listen to some experts on housing speak about the two reports on "Morning Ireland". They came from very different perspectives, from daft.ie, the ESRI and the Nevin Institute. They all agreed the fundamental underlying problem is a lack of supply and the fact we do not have enough houses, apartments and homes for a country with a rising population, increasing employment and changing demographics with more people in smaller households.

In terms of supply, we are increasing the provision of social housing. Between 2,000 and 3,000 social houses will be completed before the end of the year. This is a significant increase on last year and the year before. This will increase to approximately 4,000 to 5,000 next year. In terms of affordability, we have provided hundreds of millions for the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, to make sites accessible and make it possible for developers to build on them. There is a requirement as part of this that a significant number of the units be affordable. We also announced in the budget the establishment of house building finance Ireland. This will make it much cheaper for builders to get finance. This will take some time to get up and running but will be up and running sometime next year. We have also increased the vacant site levy to punish people who hoard land. At Cabinet today, we decided to make an amendment to the Finance Bill to require the Department of Finance to produce a report on a vacant house tax and how this might work. This will be for the consideration of the Dáil. We have also fast tracked planning and we are changing the building regulations. We are seeing results. Planning permissions are up 49% year on year, commencement notices are up 45% year on year and next year we anticipate somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 new homes being built, which is not enough but is a significant improvement on previous years.

The report on rent refers to rents advertised, so it does not cover the rent pressure zones.

Anyone who is surprised that evidence of the involvement of the Department of Justice and Equality exists really has not been paying attention to what has gone on in terms of the crisis of policing in this State in recent years and its roots in the link between An Garda Síochána, the Department and the Minister, a link we sought to break in legislation designed to facilitate proper independent oversight, which, unfortunately, was not supported by the House. The real issue for the Taoiseach is not that the crisis will have a knock-on effect on the Department but rather why that information is being released now through the offices of his former Cabinet colleague, whose party supported Nóirín O'Sullivan 100% - not just in government but in opposition - when revelations in respect of her legal strategy regarding Maurice McCabe had been made. Critically, what is the Taoiseach going to do about this? He has fared pretty well out of Garda controversies but he is now the boss and this is solely a matter for him. He can either choose to be a pawn in the games being played by the warring tribes that exist within An Garda Síochána - with the Department of Justice and Equality mandarins in the background - or he can decide to take decisive action in the context of delivering a modern police service that the citizens and gardaí deserve.

Last week, senior Garda officers who attended a pre-retirement course were shocked to see none other than the acting Garda Commissioner amble in and sit down to listen to what was being said. They thought he was at the helm. This is the same acting Garda Commissioner whose report into allegations of Garda involvement in the heroin trade in the Minister for Justice and Equality's constituency has not been published for three and a half years. As a result, GSOC cannot publish its report because it was previously been prevented from attending the disciplinary action involving these gardaí and has been frustrated in trying to access files. How can there be change without accountability or effective oversight and how long is the Taoiseach going to allow this situation to prevail? The Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland is flopping around on the outskirts coming up with nice jargon about new uniforms and new words. How in God's name will the chaos be stopped when there is nobody at the helm? What other company with 15,000 members of staff would not have a CEO in place? What job takes that long to fill? When is the Taoiseach going to call for the implementation of the Garda Síochána Inspectorate report and the filling of the vacancy for Garda Commissioner?

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