Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I hate to burst the Deputy's gotcha moment but I suggest he might wish to interrogate his numbers. I am not sure whether we should do a show of hands, but I imagine there is not a Member of Dáil Éireann, other than himself perhaps, who is not aware of the fact that there can be duplications.

There can, of course, be people involved with more than one local authority. There can be people in my constituency who can live between Greystones, Bray and Dún Laoghaire and they might be in touch with the two local authorities there. Going further south, people could be between Wicklow and Wexford. If you go to the west, they could be between west Wicklow and Kildare. If the Deputy wants to hand me over all of that data and information, he can but this is what people do when they seek to be divisive. They try to dispute official figures. These figures are not figures calculated by the Government in a party political sense. These are figures calculated by the State in a robust, impartial manner. They often deliver very difficult news for Government from a political point of view. Could we at least have the decency to respect the impartiality and robustness of those who gather statistics in Ireland? If we start trying to erode belief in statistics, that is part of a bigger agenda.

The Government is committed to the delivery of more than 300,000 homes by the end of 2030 - that is clear in the programme for Government. That is what we need to get to and we are taking big and bold decisions in the here and now to deliver those results over the next number of years. That means delivering measures that, when looked at in isolation, can understandably be critiqued or questioned but when you look at them in the round, all of the measures we are taking are to try to get a bit of momentum back into private investment in our housing market to increase supply.

We saw during the lifetime of the last Government that the number of houses very significantly increased from approximately 20,000 a year to a bit more than 30,000 a year. If we are being honest, they then plateaued. They plateaued at a level that is too low. That is why we are now taking measures to try to increase supply. It is why we have taken the decision on planning permission extension and on making more developments exempt from planning, particularly in gardens, attics and the like. It is why we published, and got through this House, a new national planning framework to provide more zoned land. It is why we are establishing a housing activation office - to break down silos. It is why we will invest significantly more in Uisce Éireann in the weeks ahead for water and wastewater treatment plants as well. We have a lot more work to do.

On the number of social homes, yes, we have more work to do but something else is also true. The Deputy must get invited to the same events I get invited to in my constituency. We are seeing a very significant increase in the number of social homes come on-stream. Last year, roughly the largest number of social homes were allocated since the 1970s. There were never more social homes allocated in my lifetime than there were last year. We need to keep that momentum and seek to do more.

One point I agree with the Deputy on is that council owned homes can lie empty for far too long. I have had a lot of discussions with a lot of people who are saying, "Hang on, if only I could get into that house. I do not need the devil and all done, I just need it to be safe and warm." That is why the Government intends to issue a circular to all local authorities to make it clear that health and safety should be the only grounds for the delay of the giving out of a local authority home, not the bells and whistles they sometimes go on with.

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