Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Will the Minister take the Taoiseach aside and explain to him that his Department, the ESRI and other experts, including the Commission on Taxation and Welfare, whose members were the experts appointed by the Government, are all of the view that taxpayers funding developers will only deepen the pockets of those developers without actually increasing supply? Will the Minister have that conversation with the Taoiseach? He continues to argue for these types of support which are not going to cut it.

The Minister mentioned that money is not the only issue. However, is it not the case that in the ministerial brief prepared for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, the seat occupied by the Minister, Deputy McGrath, until a couple of weeks ago, pointed out that there was a €1 billion underspend under his watch in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage? The fact is that social housing targets were missed last year by a figure of 2,500 homes. Is the Government going to focus on delivering the amount of money that it committed to spend? In a housing crisis, where people are homeless, 4,000 children are in emergency accommodation tonight and many people are locked out of the market, the pitiful amount of money the Government is putting on the table leaves €1 billion unspent. That is unforgivable.

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