Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I led Fianna Fáil back into government to deal with substantive issues such as housing and to make it a key priority issue because of the needs of people in society for housing as a fundamental right and a basic entitlement. That is why we have spared no effort to comprehensively develop a range of initiatives and funding allocations to match those initiatives to get more houses built.

Sinn Féin's motion this evening will not build one extra house. The Deputy should be honest about it. It would be far better if the Deputy and her party supported housing projects across the length and breadth of the country instead of opposing 975 houses in Clondalkin, 500 homes in Tallaght, 278 houses in Swords and 1,200 homes in Donabate. That is what Sinn Féin could do constructively to get more houses built in this country.

The Government said we want to, and have committed, funding for the largest social housing programme in the history of the State, and to embed that in multiannual funding over the next five years. Our target is to build 50,000 social houses to enable people to access housing.

In addition, however, we have now created a range of initiatives for affordable housing in order that young people will be able to buy houses at affordable rates. Furthermore, we brought in for the first time a national cost-rental scheme, which we will scale up. We have committed unprecedented funding to infrastructural development with €1.2 billion in urban development generation funds alone, which will help to provide the services to enable more housebuilding to take place. We have provided €1.4 billion to Irish Water to support the construction of residential units. That is substance and it will make a difference in terms of housing.

I do not see any substance in Sinn Féin's plans. I asked the Deputy yesterday whether she sees a role for private builders to start building on the other side of the coin to get more housing estates built. The Deputy said "No". She said it would be social housing only. That is the only answer she has. Sinn Féin's policies are shallow. There is an absence of substance behind them. Sinn Féin is more about rhetoric and sloganeering than about substance around housing. I will not to be deflected by its sloganeering or the degree to which it wants to exploit the housing crisis for its own electoral and political advantage.

My focus, and that of the Government, is to deal substantively with the issues to make sure we can create more supply, which is what is required. We are simply not building enough houses or apartments in Ireland now, and have not been for some time. We need all agencies of the State to make sure we can do that. That also involves the Land Development Agency Bill and making sure all the land in State hands, which is not needed for other activities, is brought into use for housing. That should be done with urgency. State agencies and other Departments will have to surrender land to make sure we get houses built. This is a crisis which this Government wants to deal with both energetically and in a focused way that gets real results.

We have made it clear that we do not believe investment funds should be bulk buying or competing with first-time buyers in the marketplace. The Government will take steps to deal with that issue and the Ministers are working on proposals that will also come forward. We need supply. Sinn Féin has opposed every single affordable housing initiative undertaken by the Government, including the Land Development Agency legislation, even on Second Stage.

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