Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I rise to vote confidence in the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage because this is a Minister who is making a real impact in Government and has delivered an exceptionally radical plan in the Housing for All strategy. This is the most radical plan in the history of this State in terms of delivering housing. It has delivered 28,000 new homes this year, which is its first year of operation. This is the largest number of new homes built since 2008.

This motion is no more than a political stunt but it has been very valuable because no more than the Opposition motion of no confidence in the Government a few short months ago, this motion has shown up the vacuousness of the Opposition and its sheer lack of policy. Of course, Sinn Féin has been trumped here by People Before Profit, its future partner in a left-wing Government, because People Before Profit initially moved this motion. In her contribution, Deputy McDonald outlined how what we needed was not a motion of no confidence but an immediate general election, presumably so that she can go into government with People Before Profit and left-wing friends such as Deputies Bríd Smith, Pringle, Boyd Barrett and Paul Murphy to deliver and solve the housing problem for us. I presume Sinn Féin will not take any of the Rural Independents with them. It never mentions them at all. A coalition of the left is what it wants. We know what that would do to the great economy we have that enables us to invest in housing, but somehow Deputy McDonald thinks that is what is going to deliver and solve the housing crisis. We have another thing coming.

I listened very carefully to Deputy Ó Broin, who is supposedly the housing guru not just for Sinn Féin but for this left-wing Government. In his contribution, he said our housing targets are not big enough, the plan is failing and it will not meet its targets. He went on to make three key points, which are that we need real action on vacancy ignoring what the Government is doing on Croí Cónaithe. The second point he made was that we need action on land use again ignoring the zoned land tax we introduced, the increased land value sharing legislation that came before Cabinet yesterday, the vacant property tax we introduced or indeed the new planning reform Bill that came before the Cabinet today. The latter is the biggest reform of housing policy, planning and development in the history of State brought forward by the Minister with our pioneering Attorney General Paul Gallagher, whose final week is this week. The third point he made was that we need real investment in social housing ignoring the fact that this year, the Government will deliver 9,000 social housing units, the largest ever amount in the State. Remember this is the man who wrote two books. I have not read any of them but listening to him today, you would not think he wrote them either. He finished off his great contribution by saying "shame on you" and then he walked out. That was representative of all we got from the rest of the Opposition tonight. All it did was define the problems we are working to solve. The Opposition offered no solutions.

In her contribution, Deputy McDonald pointed to the importance of the Fianna Fáil Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Fine Gael Minister for Finance. Sinn Féin has held the posts of minister for housing and minister for finance in Northern Ireland up until the government there fell a month ago. What did that deliver? Last year in Northern Ireland with a Sinn Féin housing minister and a Sinn Féin finance minister, which are very important according to Deputy McDonald, the average price of the average home rose by £18,000. This is a 12% increase with a Sinn Féin housing minister and a Sinn Féin finance minister. If you are looking to Sinn Féin to deliver, its track record would not speak very well in that regard.

The key priority for me has been mica and the Minister has been working very hard to deliver on that.

See this speech in context