Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The construct of the no-confidence motion put forward by Solidarity-People Before Profit leads us here today. This is a motion that is disingenuous and wide of the mark. The fantasy it purports is of the removal from office of one of our most capable Ministers one year into a ten-year strategy, which has seen some 28,000 units built, which is a fact and is not fiction, and is the highest number built since 2008. There are more than 16,000 first-time buyers, which is also a fact and is not fiction, and it is also the highest number since 2008. The idea is this motion will somehow magically solve our housing challenges. Those supporting the motion took to the airwaves over the weekend to engage in their usual populist sloganeering, fighting the need for fundamental change. Are Solidarity-People Before Profit seriously suggesting that to increase supply as quickly as possible, we should stop what we are doing, which is implementing the single most ambitious housing plan in the history of the State with unprecedented levels of multi-annual funding, and start all over again?

Let us talk about what is happening in Waterford under Housing for All. Should we stop the repair and lease scheme, under which 71 residential housing units for older people have been delivered in the former St Joseph’s Convent, which is inner-city living for inner-city people, appropriate to their needs and with the wraparound supports those people need? The completion date for this project is in the first quarter of 2023. Let us talk about affordable purchase delivery at Mount Neil, Carrickpherish, where there are 32 affordable purchase houses with a completion date of the first quarter of 2023. Deerpark, Williamstown has 25 affordable houses with a completion date of the fourth quarter of 2022. Summerfields, Kilbarry has 62 affordable units in two phases, both of which are to be completed in the first quarter of 2023. Let us talk about price. The projected sale price will be between €214,000 and €243,000 per affordable unit. That is delivery, that is Housing for All, and that is what is happening the length and breadth of the country. It may not be happening quickly enough but it is happening.

The Opposition continues to call for a general election and for a new government to solve the housing crisis. In reality, many of the Opposition parties shirk from the challenge of office in the wake of 2016 and 2020-----

See this speech in context