Holly Cairns (Cork South-West, Social Democrats)

This Government is clearly in panic mode. Its new housing plan was supposed to be published in July and there is still no sign of it. Instead, what we have seen is a succession of measures that all have one common feature: throwing more public money at developers in the desperate hope that the market will deliver.

We have been here before and we know how it ends - soaring house prices and rents and a broken housing system.

I am sure the Taoiseach does not need me to tell him that there is more disastrous news in housing today. Construction activity is down again, for the fifth time in a row. Just to be clear, the Government's target for 2025 is 41,000 homes. We are now halfway through October, so we have a pretty good idea of where it is going to go. According to the Central Bank, the Government is going to miss its housing targets again - this time by 8,500 homes.

People are sick of hearing the Taoiseach say that the Government's approach to housing is working despite every metric proving otherwise. At some point, this Government is going to have to face reality. Its housing policies have failed.

We need new thinking. The State needs to step up and deliver affordable homes. The State needs to radically change course, as its own Housing Commission recommended, because the fact of the matter is the Government's approach has not worked, it is not working now and it is not going to work.

Budget after budget, people in their twenties, thirties and forties are looking on, still in their childhood bedrooms, missing out on milestones, relationships, career opportunities, having a family, unable to plan their future or put down roots in a community - all while they look at headlines about record budget surpluses. The disconnect is just staggering.

People have been listening to Governments promising to address the housing disaster for more than a decade now, so I understand that many people out there just feel despair and hopelessness, but there are solutions. The Social Democrats have a huge range of policy proposals that could make a real difference, such as the homes for Ireland saving plan to use some of the €160 billion just sitting in deposit accounts earning no interest and our plan to build a modular homes factory to turbo charge the delivery of affordable homes, but instead of adopting them or even examining them, the Government will just plough on with the same old failed approach.

My question is: when is the Government going to publish its housing plan and is it planning to do anything different?

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