Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann reaffirms its confidence in the Government.

This is a good Government of three parties working together. We led Ireland through the pandemic, saving lives and livelihoods. We have secured a new agreement on Northern Ireland and Brexit, preventing a hard border. We have helped families and businesses to weather the cost-of-living crisis through unprecedented financial support. This was only possible due to our prudent management of the public finances down the years. For only the second time in our history, we have full employment and a job for everyone who wants one. For a country that knows the painful experience of centuries of emigration, we are now once again home to more than 5 million people, with people coming to Ireland from all over the world to avail the economic opportunities here. Under this Government, there are more Irish citizens returning home than there are leaving.

We have made major strides forward on workers’ rights, including increases in the minimum wage, statutory sick pay and parental leave. We are reducing the cost of healthcare, childcare, going to school or college and we are improving the quality of those services all the time. Notwithstanding the very real problems with access to our public health service, good patient outcomes now ensure that we have the highest life expectancy in the European Union.

In a world made up of 200 countries, Ireland is consistently ranked in the top ten or 20 by almost every measure. By any objective analysis, this is a Government that should have the confidence of the House. It is also a Government that can do more and can do better. I am conscious that this motion was triggered by a motion of no confidence tabled by the Labour Party, relating to the housing shortage. I believe the housing crisis cuts so deeply because it offends our sense of fairness and our fundamental belief in what Government is for and what the State should do. Housing is a basic need and a human right, and family homelessness in particular shakes our faith in our Republic, which is founded on the idea that all children should be treated equally. Solving the housing crisis is therefore one of the greatest political and practical challenges of our time. Indeed, it is an imperative.

Due to a rapidly rising population, ever-smaller household sizes and the scarring effects of the construction, banking and fiscal crash, we have an enormous deficit of housing in Ireland, perhaps 250,000 units, but we are making progress. Last year, we built more social housing than in any year since 1975. This year, we will build even more. No Government in my lifetime, or in the lifetime of most people in this State, has been more committed to social housing than this one, and that matters.

In December, there were more first-time buyers buying their first home than in any month since records began in 2010. More young couples and single people bought their first home last year than in any year in 16 years. That gives me hope. We exceeded our main target by building 30,000 new homes last year, not including student accommodation or derelict properties that were brought back into use. That spurs us on.

I admire and respect the passion and indignation shown by many of those who are trying to find solutions, whether they are in this House or outside it. It speaks to our empathy and compassion as a nation, as well as our determination to make things better and care for others. As a Government, our job is to match this passion with action. We have to lead with ideas that are realistic and implementable. We need to demonstrate convincingly that we understand the scale of the crisis and that we care deeply about those who are experiencing its consequences. My only criticism of proceedings in this House is that too often they allow the critics of Government to show passion and indignation without presenting new ideas, let alone having them tested. Indeed, they get very offended when they are tested. Therefore, instead of honesty about the scale of the problem and about what can be achieved given the constraints, we get quick fixes, simple solutions, populist rhetoric, constant interruptions, politicians claiming that they just care more, conspiracy theories about the causes of the crisis and the demonisation of those who are working every day to relieve it. It is political theatre, performative anger and performance art and I think more and more people are starting to see through it.

The Labour Party's motion is just another example of this. If the Opposition is successful in winning this vote, it would mean that Dáil Éireann would be dissolved this afternoon. There would be an election sometime in April and the Dáil would not meet until sometime in May. It might be well into the summer before we would have an elected Government. The eviction moratorium would lapse on 31 March anyway, and no new primary legislation could be passed to deal with the housing crisis for several months. Knowing this, it is profoundly disingenuous for anyone to claim that the Labour Party’s motion is about renters’ rights or about people who are facing homelessness.

See this speech in context