Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Can the public trust this Government? More importantly, why should it trust his Government? I ask because people were misled by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael during the election campaign. They were misled on the issue of the number of homes that were delivered last year. The Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the former Minister for housing were all adamant that the figure in that regard would be 40,000. It was nowhere near that. The deception does not end there, because there were lies of omission too. At no stage did the Taoiseach tell the public that the Government wanted to get rid of rent pressure zones and drive up rents. At no stage did he tell the public that the Government needed to pivot more strongly to the private sector. At no stage did he tell the public that the Government wanted to introduce tax breaks for developers. Does the Taoiseach think the public would have voted for all of that, namely a housing policy with a singular focus of increasing profits for developers and investment funds at the expense of first-time buyers and renters who are already paying some of the highest housing costs in Europe?

The election was just three months ago; we are not talking about the dim and distant past here. Before Christmas, the Taoiseach was spinning a story of success and a plan that was working. Now members of the Government are briefing the media that it is in the last-chance saloon and needs to make drastic changes to have any chance of meeting its targets. In true Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael fashion, those changes are entirely focused on boosting profits for multibillion euro investment funds. What about the people at the coalface of this crisis? I refer to the 500,000 adults who are stuck living in their childhood bedrooms, the couples who are postponing having families because they do not have secure homes and the 4,510 children growing up in homelessness who are missing key developmental milestones because their accommodation is so cramped and unsuitable. Fianna Fáil has been influencing housing policy since 2016, when it entered a confidence and supply arrangement in order to prop up Fine Gael. It has had nearly a decade to sort this out; instead it has lurched from crisis to catastrophe. After all that time, the best it can do is come up with tax breaks for developers. Dusting off Fianna Fáil's Celtic tiger housing plan is not an answer to the housing disaster. We all know where it ended before.

Does the Taoiseach accept that the public was misled by him during the election campaign? Will he apologise to the public for this? Why should the public believe anything he says on housing now?

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