Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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14. To ask the Taoiseach his views on the national reform programme for the European semester 2022 that was published by his Department in April 2022. [26002/22]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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15. To ask the Taoiseach his views on the national reform programme for the European semester 2022 that was published by his Department in April 2022. [26005/22]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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18. To ask the Taoiseach his views on the national reform programme for the European semester 2022 that was published by his Department in April 2022. [35588/22]

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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19. To ask the Taoiseach his views on the national reform programme for the European semester 2022 that was published by his Department in April 2022. [36169/22]

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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20. To ask the Taoiseach his views on the national reform programme. [34512/22]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 14 to 20, inclusive, together.

Ireland submitted its national reform programme, NRP, for 2022 to the European Commission on 4 May. The NRP was laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas and published on gov.iethereafter. The NRP is an element of the European semester, the annual cycle of economic and fiscal policy co-ordination among EU member states. As part of the semester, Ireland, along with all other member states, is required to prepare and submit an NRP to the European Commission each year. No NRP was submitted in 2021 as the semester process was temporarily suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The NRP provides an overview of economic reforms and policy actions under way in Ireland, including a response to country-specific recommendations received. In 2022, the NRP also fulfilled one of the two biannual reporting requirements of member states under the recovery and resilience facility.

The challenges and Government policy responses that were addressed in Ireland's 2022 NRP included climate action and the environment, housing, supporting participation in the labour market, rebuilding and supporting sustainable enterprise, planning for the future, and long-term fiscal sustainability. Development of the programme was co-ordinated by the Department of the Taoiseach, with input from relevant Departments and agencies, drawing on Government strategies such as the economic recovery plan, Housing for All, and the climate action plan. As part of this process, stakeholders were invited to make submissions on the key challenges to be addressed in the programme. The European semester process provides a valuable opportunity to engage in shared analysis with the European Commission and build understanding on key economic issues.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Taoiseach will not be surprised that I want to raise the housing element of the national reform programme. One of the issues that should now set alarm bells ringing is that the construction sector in this country is starting to contract. As inadequate a plan as Housing for All is, and it is wholly inadequate and does not address the crisis, even it may not now be delivered as we are starting to see a contraction in construction because of rising costs. How will the Government respond to that?

We have a developed policy proposal because we cannot afford not to address the housing crisis and deliver on building the public, affordable and other houses that we need. If costs are going to stop the private sector from building, as is now becoming evident, we need a State construction company. We simply cannot not build public and affordable housing. We cannot allow a contraction of construction activity. The State will have to step in where the market in not capable of delivering. What does the Taoiseach say to that?

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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I want to ask the Taoiseach about the growing crisis in education in Dublin, where many schools are reporting that teachers are leaving to find positions in other parts of the country because they cannot afford to rent or the price of buying homes in Dublin. One Dublin school has reported that six teachers have left to work outside of Dublin, where accommodation costs are not as high. Some 55% of secondary school principals say they have unfilled vacancies, and an incredible 84% of principals who then advertise those vacancies say not a single teacher applies for the jobs. The consequence is that some Dublin schools seem likely to have to cut optional subjects. Una Mullally pointed out in a recent article that a teacher starting out in a secondary school in Dublin will pay two thirds of his or her income on very modest accommodation. Is the Taoiseach going to do anything about this? Will he at least agree to give teachers an inflation-linked pay increase? If he will not act to bring rents down, as he should, will he consider a premium for teachers working in Dublin?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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In terms of housing more generally, I have said consistently since I was elected Taoiseach that it is the most pressing and significant social issue facing our country.

That is why we developed a comprehensive plan for housing, to which no party in the Opposition has responded in any detail beyond sound bites and slogans and some proposals that would make the situation worse. The proposals of the Deputies opposite would reduce supply in the market - simple as.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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Either we have proposals and they are terrible or we do not have proposals. It cannot be both.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We now have the highest number of commencements on record. We have the highest number of planning permissions in over a decade. We have the highest number of completions in over a decade. We have established a high-level housing delivery group. Unfortunately, in the past two years we have been hit by Covid first, with two lockdowns, and now by a war on Ukraine, which is affecting commodity prices, in particular the prices of steel and timber, and, in turn, causing inflation. House construction has gone down slightly, according to the May BNP-Paribas report, but the predominance of the decline was actually in other sectors, not housing. We have increased the capacity of the industry in respect of skills, with a 40% increase in construction apprenticeships. We have expanded the help-to-buy scheme and set up the new First Home shared equity scheme. More than 1,000 people have already applied. Deputies opposite attack such schemes, yet the people are voting with their feet in applying to them because they find them useful.

We have introduced a new €30,000 grant for vacant properties. We have introduced a new subsidy to activate apartment building in city centres for owner-occupiers. We have expanded the tenant purchase scheme to include pensioners. We are building the first affordable homes in over a generation through the local authorities. We have passed the first ever Affordable Housing Act. We have revamped the Land Development Agency to focus on affordable homes and put the agency on a statutory basis. We have put in place the first ever cost rental units in the history of the State. We have banned co-living. We have capped rent increases and strengthened tenants' protections. We have enhanced the local authority home loan. We have reduced interest rates for State-backed mortgages to make it easier for single people to avail of such mortgages. We have launched the largest State-led social housing building programme ever. We have slashed red tape with a new single-stage development approval process for outlays of up to €6 million to accelerate social housing delivery. We have expanded the repair and leasing scheme from 40,000 to 60,000 to bring vacant properties into use. We have brought more than 6,000 voids back into use. We have delivered in excess of 700 Housing First tenancies. We have launched a new housing strategy for disabled people to run from 2022 to 2027. We have provided €81 million in funding for housing adaptation grants for older people. We have established the national homeless action committee. We have secured a local government rates waiver of more than €1 billion to support local businesses and services. We have launched €1.3 billion in urban regeneration funding for towns and city centres, which will help house construction infrastructurally. There is a €50 million water investment scheme for rural towns and villages. There is a €61 million fire services capital programme.

There has been a lot of action and work. Objectively, no matter the views of Deputies opposite, they cannot dismiss the level of activity in the past two years. Notwithstanding the Covid pandemic and the war, we will do everything we possibly can.

Furthermore, in 2021 about 20,400 houses were built. Some 12,600 of those were bought by households in the private sector; 5,200 were social housing. Therefore, the social houses and households generally accounted for 87% of the total, with 2,600 classed as others. Sometimes, listening to the debate in this House, one would imagine that the others accounted for the 87% instead of 2,600 and not realise the fact that the vast bulk of houses built last year went to private households or to social housing. There has been a lack of balance in the narrative surrounding housing and in the debate, with the suggestion that this is all investment funds and so on. It is not at all. It is the same this year. However, it suits politically and suits the sound bite environment in which we live in contemporary politics to create the narrative and the story that housing policy is limited to looking after vulture funds and so on, as Deputy Boyd Barrett and Deputy Murphy hammer out every day. In fact, 87% of all housing completed last year went to a combination of private households and social households. That is a fact. We are looking at a similar situation in 2022. We need balance and objectivity in the debate, which we are not getting.

As for the issue in education, there is no doubt rents are too high. We need more and more supply across the board. By the way, the State is now the biggest actor in housing supply. There is no question about that. Deputy Boyd Barrett and Deputy Murphy can nod all they like. Whether social housing, affordable housing through local authorities, cost rental or State involvement in respect of the First Home scheme, the State through the Government is the biggest actor in housing, not funds and not anybody else.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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We pay; they profit.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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This does not apply just to education but to anybody living and working in Dublin or in the major cities in respect of any profession. One cannot single out just one profession. There is no doubt but there are challenges and that people will opt for a lower rent situation that would meet their personal requirements if they can get it. Until we get supply to a really significant level, we will continue to be in difficulty here. We will look at other measures, such as through tax measures, to alleviate the pressures people are under. Pay in the private sector has gone up 10% over the past two years. There is the public service pay deal the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform negotiated last year, Building Momentum. A further negotiation has commenced and adjourned. It is the Government's desire that we would have a pay deal with the public service and then, in the context of the budget, that we would have proposals on tax and social protection in parallel with a pay agreement. Then, overall, we can help to alleviate the pressures on teachers and others working in the public service and in the private sector, also through tax measures. Parallel with that, we would have a cost-of-living package that would focus on families and children and reduce the burden on them. What the Government envisages providing now is an overall cost-of-living package that will be once-off and will be applied in this calendar year, before the end of the year, in order that people would have funding from that package and that the budget measures themselves would enable us to come through the winter and put in place more medium-term policies on childcare, spending on education and in all the various Departments.