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

I think the Deputy's response is now the typical Sinn Féin response - oppose everything, prevaricate, delay and endeavour to exploit the housing crisis for its own political ends and electoral gain as opposed to coming up with real solutions that matter out there. Our fundamental concern is with young purchasers and other people to enable them to be in a position to buy houses at affordable rates.

Last night's measures will be effective in that regard. The stamp duty going to 10% is much broader and more effective than the UK situation that Sinn Féin has cited, which, of course, applies to houses that are valued at more than £500,000. That illustrates the lack of detail and attempt to obfuscate, which is now part and parcel of the Sinn Féin presentation on housing.

It is remarkable that for the past number of months, the Sinn Féin leader has come in here and attacked investment funds and, week after week, attacked developers and so on, saying that it is all developer-led. What happened last evening? Her party's housing spokesman was on "Prime Time" appealing to all and sundry and saying the party wants more developers. "I welcome developers", he said, and he acknowledged there was a role for investment funds. Sinn Féin is having it each and every way. Which is it, Deputy McDonald? What is the true nature of Sinn Féin housing policy? There are gaps everywhere in the policy and she is not strong on the detail of it. She keeps coming out with big figures for this and that but they are not really grounded in reality in terms of providing housing for people on the ground.

Let us take the scheme the Minister launched this morning in Clondalkin, involving more than 1,200 houses. Sinn Féin held that up for a long time on the basis that it wanted 100% public housing on public lands. The party is very weak on the role of the private sector in getting houses built. It is very weak on the supply question. Its proposals would damage supply in housing and reduce the number of units available to people. The reality is we are not building enough houses and apartments in this country. Just announcing a figure, as Sinn Féin does, and saying, "Oh, we will do 40,000 this year, just like that", is not grounded in reality, as Deputy McDonald knows. However, that does not matter because her party is not about solving the crisis. It is about exploiting the crisis. That is its agenda at council level, national level and in public discourse.

Sinn Féin opposes everything. It opposed the help to buy scheme, which has helped 22,000 ordinary people to buy houses. It opposed the Land Development Agency Bill on some narrow ideological basis, even though it will give us the engine and the leverage to get houses built in this country. It opposed the shared equity scheme. It opposed 16 out of 21 development motions on Dublin City Council. The list goes on. Where is the constructive engagement? Where are the real policies from Sinn Féin? I do not see them. What i tis proposing in terms of an alternative proposal to the one the Government came up with last night, presented by the Ministers, Deputy Darragh O'Brien and Donohoe, would reduce supply. There are issues in terms of apartments and we acknowledge that. There are issues around financing developments and builders. We need private builders building housing estates and apartments. This is just one measure. The measure is about enabling people to buy houses and duplexes on housing estates and the funds will not compete with them. It is a good structured measure that people feel is sensible and will not have the negative consequence of reducing the supply of apartments in cities, which we need.

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