Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend the speedy response and bravery of the men and women of the Dublin Fire Brigade in dealing with last night's hotel fire Ballymun. It is thanks to them, the Garda and other emergency and council staff, as well as the staff of the hotel and the adjoining building, that there were neither injuries nor fatalities. They deserve all of our thanks.

This day two months ago, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, announced his affordable homes initiative. Describing the measures as initiatives was a bit of a stretch. They were more like threadbare promises. He re-announced the €25 million fund for local authorities to deliver affordable homes but there were no details, no timelines and certainly no targets. He re-announced the long-promised but not yet delivered cost rental project. Again, there were no details, no timelines and certainly no targets. The only concrete proposal was for a revised local authority first-time buyer's loan scheme. Clearly, the Minister was under pressure. He needed to give the impression that he was doing something. That was because on Fine Gael's watch, the affordable housing crisis has spiralled out of control.

Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of individuals and couples are unable to access affordable homes to rent or to buy. The Government's housing plan has no targets for the delivery of affordable homes. The Minister, possibly with the overpriced advice of the strategic communications unit, cobbled together the so-called initiative to make it look like he had a plan. In response to the revised council loan scheme, Sinn Féin raised the following concerns. It did not address the core problem, namely, the undersupply of affordable housing. It risked burdening modest-income families with unsustainable loans to purchase overpriced houses. It breached the Central Bank's mortgage lending rules. While the scheme will help some families and the fixed-interest rate is attractive, it demonstrates the Government has not yet grasped the scale, or indeed the source, of the affordable housing crisis.

When I made these points at the time, the Minister dismissed my concerns. However, this morning, RTÉ reporter, Louise Byrne, revealed on "Morning Ireland" that the Department of Finance shared exactly the same concerns. In a written response to the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the Department of Finance said the rationale for the measure was unclear, it involved significant risk of exposure to the State and would do nothing to increase housing supply at a time when supply not demand was the problem. Despite this, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, ignored these concerns. The information obtained by RTÉ also revealed that, even though its concerns were not met, the Department of Finance withdrew its objections, leading to speculation that the final decision was a political one, made in full knowledge of the shortcomings and problems with the scheme.

Will the Tánaiste tell the House why the Government ignored the opinion of the Department of Finance? Will he tell us why Rebuilding Ireland contains no targets for affordable rental or purchase homes? Will he confirm that not a single affordable home will be delivered this year by any central government scheme?

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