Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I do not know whether the Tánaiste thinks people believe him when he comes to the House and says we do not put forward any solutions.

In the past number of weeks alone, my colleague, Deputy O'Callaghan, has put forward 255 amendments to the planning Bill but the Government has just routinely voted them down. One of them was around zoning land for affordable housing. It was rejected.

On the immediate solutions we have suggested, they include a tax with teeth on vacancy to try to address the tens of thousands of vacant homes in the middle of a housing crisis and an effective stamp duty on the bulk buying of homes where first-time buyers are not competing with billion euro funds. The Government has refused to do that. It has gone under the radar this week that it will not. That is not to mention the introduction of a ban on no-fault evictions. This is something that is standard across the rest of Europe and the Government will not even introduce it when more children are becoming homeless by the week.

On more medium-term solutions suggested by the Social Democrats, we have put forward a motion on home ownership with a focus on re-directing subsidies from developers. Related to that we have a Developer Profits Transparency Bill 2023. The Tenancy Protection Bill will protect tenants from large-scale evictions. We have published a Bill which would make landlords demanding sex in lieu of rent an offence. Another Social Democrats Bill would create a land price register. We have put forward suggestions to amend the mandate that at least 15% of new apartment builds go to individuals and families.

That kind of spin is just something people are sick of and it solidifies the feeling that the Government is just in denial. Can the Tánaiste answer my question on what he has to say to the fact that he has not met any of the Government's affordable housing targets since it took office? I recognised that supplies have increased from the private market but we need supplies of affordable homes to reduce the price of housing overall because at the core of this crisis is an issue of affordability. Please answer the question about affordable housing targets.

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