Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am more than happy to speak for ten minutes; I have a lot to say.

Forty thousand is the number of new homes the Taoiseach and Simon Harris said they would build last year. It is a number that was repeated again and again throughout 2024, going into overdrive in the lead-up to last November’s general election. Let me recall for the Taoiseach some of his bluster. On social media in October, he said the country was coming close to having 40,000 homes built in 2024. On Virgin Media, again in October, he said "we've now got to about 40,000" new homes. Of course, he was not on his own. Simon Harris first floated the figure of 40,000 in August of last year. In October, he was at it again, saying new builds would be "well upwards towards 40,000", and he repeated this claim at the Fine Gael manifesto launch in November. Clearly, the claim of 40,000 new homes for 2024 was being used as an election ploy, an attempt to convince people that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had turned the corner on housing. Here is the catch: none of it was true. The figure of 40,000 new homes was pure fiction, a trick designed to mislead the public because the Government could not face an election based on the actual facts of its performance on housing, and not alone had the rate of house-building stagnated on the Taoiseach's watch but it was in fact going backwards. Now his election lies have been exposed and he has been caught out.

Two reports published in the past two weeks have exposed the Taoiseach’s election gimmick and laid bare again his failure on housing. The first is the report from the Central Statistics Office, which states that only 30,000 new homes were built in 2024. That is a far cry from the 40,000 homes the Taoiseach parroted throughout the election campaign. This report reflects the fact that the number of new homes has fallen from that of the previous year, 2023.

Yesterday, figures released by Construction Information Services Ireland indicated that only 29,136 homes were built last year. That is not even 30,000, not to mind the 40,000 the Taoiseach put up in lights for the election. The truth is that his claim of 40,000 new homes for 2024 was a load of bull, and well he knew it. However, he chose to repeat the claim again and again in an effort to mislead voters.

The housing crisis touches every part of our society. It has driven desperation and despair. It is bad enough that the Taoiseach has failed to solve this crisis but worse, he openly and knowingly deceived the public on this matter in the course of the last election. The Taoiseach is on the record repeatedly doing just that, so he needs to set the record straight. Cur i gcéill a bhí ann ó thús nuair a dúirt an Taoiseach go dtógfaí 40,000 teach sa bhliain 2024. Ba chóir dó agus don Tánaiste, Simon Harris, an fhírinne a insint. This is very straightforward. The Taoiseach and Simon Harris repeatedly gave false information to the public regarding new house builds. The figure of 40,000 was simply untrue. The Taoiseach now has the opportunity to correct the record and I ask that he avail of that opportunity today.

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