Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is true. The Government has a range of work to do, but the three key objectives central to Government are addressing the housing crisis, reforming healthcare and advancing the opportunity we will get from taking climate change from going to the max in what we need to do. In housing, there is not just the Housing for All strategy, which I believe engages on and commits to many of the measures that the Deputy has just mentioned. There is also the national development plan. The clear commitment among every Government Department is that housing comes first, it gets the largest allocation and it is the critical area in which we have to spend up to €4 billion a year. The Deputy mentioned a referendum on the right to housing and various other measures. I think this week the Housing Commission initiated its public consultation on how such a referendum might be framed. As a country, we have learned that referendums require us to think about the question that is being asked and the wording of it. The Deputy called for the introduction of a vacant property tax. Yesterday, the Minister of Finance committed to introduce such a tax, as well as a zoned land tax for land that is not being used. That has been committed to. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage will be discussing the shared equity scheme today, perhaps even as we speak. It is one of a series of measures that we need to introduce in the area of affordable housing. I agree with the Deputy that cost-rental housing is central and key to delivering affordable housing. The Housing for All plan commits to the provision of 18,000 cost-rental homes, and to go further if we can. We will work with the Land Development Agency, LDA, on the matter. I agree that the situation can be frustrating. A lot of the time we would like to see things done faster. Many of the developments for which planning applications have been approved are not being built. In Dublin city, for example, the real question is where the housing is being built. A lot of the housing is being built in the peripheral counties around Dublin. Not enough housing is going into Cork city, Limerick city, Galway city, Waterford city and Dublin city. Houses need to go back into the city centres. We have to think where we are building houses, as well as how many. On the plan to move towards delivering 33,000 houses per annum, which we must do, the latest analysis presented to me shows that this year we will be on target. It is expected that 25,000 houses will be completed this year. It is never going to be enough, but we are on track to deliver what we committed to do. I do not disagree with the points the Deputy raised. I think the real job is ensuring that we accelerate the programme now. I do not believe there is a huge difference in the policies. It is about delivering them. The Minister for Finance announced measures yesterday and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is announcing measures today. I could list a number of other occasions where the Government is acting.

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