David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It takes some brass neck for the Government to say that it has turned the corner on housing and that its policies are working. Let us examine the facts. House prices are up and have been rising all of the time. Rents are up and have been rising under the Government's watch, month on month and year on year. Homelessness is up month on month and year on year under the Government's watch. It cannot blame the Opposition for that. It cannot blame Sinn Féin or anybody else for its failures. What the Government has overseen are record levels of homelessness and increased house prices and rents. Let us also look at the targets the Government set. I refer not to the more ambitious targets we would have wanted it to deliver, but to its social and affordable housing targets. The Government has missed every single one of them. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael McGrath, is wrong to say that biggest developer here is the State. The private sector built more homes than the State did. Many of the social and affordable homes being spoken about were purchased from the private sector. This Government has failed abysmally.

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