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

I will raise the issue with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys.

On Deputy Pearse Doherty's question, we all have a role to play in making sure the Good Friday Agreement works. I am disappointed when I hear Sinn Féin spokespersons, as has been the case for weeks, setting the scene for the blame game.

That is very disappointing and I call on Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, to come to an agreement to form a coalition government and do the right thing by the people of Northern Ireland.

On the Deputy's specific question, at my meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May in Gothenburg on Friday we discussed the Good Friday Agreement. As I have done at previous meetings, I said to Prime Minister May that the Irish Government could not accept a return to direct rule as it existed prior to the Good Friday Agreement and that if Sinn Féin and the DUP failed to form an administration, the Government I lead would expect the Good Friday Agreement to be implemented without them. That means convening the British-Irish Inter-Governmental Conference, as if nothing is devolved then everything is devolved to that conference. I indicated to her I would seek a meeting in the new year of the British-Irish Inter-Governmental Conference so British and Irish Ministers could meet to plot a way forward for Northern Ireland in the absence of the elected representatives in Northern Ireland being able to form an administration.

With regard to housing and homelessness, I do not wish to speak for other people but statistics are important. It is how we know whether things are getting better or policies are working. International comparisons are important also, notwithstanding the health warning that comes with them. It is how we know what examples to follow or not. Perhaps sometimes when we speak about statistics, numbers and policy, it can come across as being somewhat unfeeling. I want everyone in the House to be assured that the Government feels very deeply about the homelessness crisis we are facing and that it is worsening. It feels very deeply about the need for us to return to a status quoin which people can aspire to home ownership again, with homes being affordable and available for young people seeking to purchase them. That is our objective.

With regard to social housing more generally, we anticipate 2,000 houses will be built this year. They are social homes, publicly built homes, council homes or council apartments, whatever people wish to call them. That is up from only a few hundred last year, meaning the number has more than doubled. The aim next year is 7,000, with 3,800 direct-build and approximately the same number through other mechanisms. Deputy Boyd Barrett spoke about playing with figures but much of that is going around on all sides. I was in Clongriffin just yesterday at an Iveagh Trust project. Many Members know the Iveagh Trust, which has been providing social housing for people for over a century. It is associated with the Guinness family. It has 84 apartments and duplexes under construction and they will be occupied by 84 people and their families this time next year. When our opponents criticise our record on housing, they do not count such homes; to them, these 84 homes do not exist and the people who will be in them do not exist.

See this speech in context