Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach and his predecessor, Deputy Micheál Martin, repeatedly told this House that housing was the biggest single social issue facing the Government. In his first interview after he assumed the office of Taoiseach, he said we needed to turn the corner on housing with a Covid-style response. He then clarified that what he meant by that was to adopt a can-do attitude. His can-do attitude appeared to evaporate in the Dáil yesterday when he flippantly dismissed concerns in respect of the significant under-delivery of social homes last year. The target for the delivery of new-build social homes last year was 9,000. That was reduced quietly in November to 8,000, and in December the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform warned that just 6,500 were likely to be delivered, nearly 30% below the original target. Even then, the majority of them were purchased from the private sector. When this was raised with the Taoiseach yesterday, he offered no explanation or apology for this gross failure by the Government to deliver on its own targets. He said, "we have not built perhaps as many as we would have liked or as many as we had intended". What is the point in the Government's housing targets? Can the Taoiseach explain that to me? Judging by his comment yesterday, he does not seem to care that the targets for social homes have been missed for three years in a row.

The figures are even worse when it comes to affordable homes. Having delivered zero affordable homes in its first two years, the Government is set to miss last year's target by a whopping 80%. Fewer than 1,000 affordable homes will be delivered out of a modest target of 4,100. Perhaps this should not come as a surprise, given that the Department failed to spend a staggering €1 billion of its capital budget during the biggest housing crisis in the history of the State. The Taoiseach and his predecessor continually claim they are prioritising housing but where is the evidence for that? It cannot be found in the Government repeatedly missing its own targets, the record number of people in homelessness, record rents, record house prices or the record number of adults in their 20s or 30s or even older who are living in childhood bedrooms and cannot afford to move out.

People desperately need hope that the housing disaster can be addressed. The Taoiseach claims it will be addressed using some vague can-do attitude that has apparently been absent from this Government so far, but his record is one of broken promises. Is it any wonder that a new poll carried out by Virgin Media News found that a staggering 92% of young people are worried they will never be able to afford a home?

My questions are simple. What is the point in the Government's modest housing targets when it keeps missing them? Why should anyone believe any of the Government's commitments on housing? Does the Taoiseach really understand the magnitude of this problem?

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