Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the good news overnight of the DUP's decision to end its boycott of the institutions. I hope we will now see the executive, the assembly and the North-South institutions up and running before long. It is long overdue, as I am sure all of us in this House can agree.

Tá tithe de dhíth ag daoine ar phraghas réasúnta a cheannach ná a chíosú. Mar sin féin, níl siad ar fáil agus tá an chuma ar an scéal anois go bhfuil an Rialtas don cheathrú bliain i ndiaidh a chéile tar éis teip iomlán a dhéanamh ar na spriocanna a bhí leagtha síos acu ó thaobh praghsanna réasúnta de ar thithe a thógáil. Cén fáth é sin?

As the Taoiseach well knows, a generation of workers, families and young people continue to struggle to put an affordable and secure roof over their heads. Under his Government, the housing crisis has gone from bad to worse, with sky-high house prices, rip-off rents and a severe shortage of housing stock, as again highlighted in research published yesterday by Sherry FitzGerald auctioneers. People who work hard and have done all the right things to create a good future for themselves and their families are crying out for affordable homes to rent or buy. We have come to the bonkers situation where a couple must now earn €127,000 a year to be able to afford a new, average house in the city of Dublin. It is not just a problem in this city. In Galway, people must earn €115,000 a year, while in Cork, the figure is €104,000 a year. This is off-the-wall stuff. It is totally demoralising for people right across the State. Many people who rightly have the aspiration of homeownership are instead forced to remain trapped in the private rental market, where they fork out huge amounts on rent every single month.

These workers, families and young people need real solutions. The best solution is for the Government to drive with ambition the delivery of affordable homes to rent and to buy at a level the scale of the crisis demands. However, last week, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, published the so-called housing progress report. It has 44 glossy pages, lots of words and lots of numbers but very little information on the delivery of the homes for which the Government is directly responsible. Incredibly, the Minister failed to provide a progress update on the 3,550 genuinely affordable homes to rent or buy that the Government promised to deliver through local authorities and approved housing bodies, AHBs, last year. There is not one word in the report about it. We have complete and utter silence.

The Taoiseach can see why this rings alarm bells. Since the Government came to office, it has missed its affordable housing targets not just in one year but every single year. For four years in a row, the targets have been missed, and the targets were far too low for starters. The lack of pace, ambition and urgency to deliver affordable houses has serious consequences for people. Thousands of adults in their 30s and 40s who want to strike out on their own are living at home with their parents. As we know, young people are leaving in their droves for the chance of a better life and flocking to places like Australia.

The housing affordability crisis is a real barrier for employers hiring workers, schools hiring teachers and hospitals hiring nurses and doctors. The Government and the housing Minister need to come clean with the people. The Minister is hiding behind the numbers of private homes that developers are building, many of which are totally unaffordable and many of which are still being snapped up by the vulture funds.

When it comes to owning up and telling us what the Government is directly responsible for, there is complete silence. This is a straightforward question. Will the Government meet its target of 3,550 affordable homes that were promised to be delivered through AHBs and local authorities last year or will last year be like every other year of this Government and the targets will be missed once again?

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