Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Right through the election campaign, the Taoiseach and Government Ministers claimed that 40,000 homes would be built in 2024. We now know that this was a wildly exaggerated claim. In fact, the actual number built last year was almost 10,000 short of that figure. That 40,000 was a bogus figure. Earlier today, the Taoiseach rejected the suggestion from Opposition parties that he was deliberately misleading the country by repeating this figure of 40,000. That raises a very serious question, however. Did he and Government Ministers repeat that assertion throughout last year in good faith? Did he repeat it while genuinely believing that number would be achieved? If so, it smacks of incompetence. It certainly would not lead anyone to have confidence in his Government's commitment to build the 300,000 homes it has promised to build by the end of 2030 without changing Government policy, which has patently failed. We in the Labour Party put forward constructive proposals to ramp up housing supply but the Taoiseach rejected them.

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