Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, will be taking Leaders' Questions for the first time.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Workers and families are struggling and families are struggling to keep up with sharp increases in grocery costs and households are being fleeced, day in and day out. Food price hikes have hit people's pockets hard and still show no sign of coming down.

Last week, the Government met food retailers and the Taoiseach said the Government would have a very stark message to deliver. In advance of the meeting, the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, said he was preparing a dossier on price gouging that he was going to confront retailers with. We now hear this did not in fact happen. This meeting was talked up by the Government, but appears to have amounted to nothing. The Government tried to paint up the meeting as a big success but the reality is now clear. The upshot of it all is that nothing has changed for consumers, who continue to face these crippling costs. This was really nothing more than a cosy chat between Government and the retailers for the sake of optics. It was yet another PR exercise to give the impression the Government is doing something on extortionate food prices, when the truth is it is doing nothing at all.

Last week, I and others raised the question of profiteering and price gouging by food retailers with the Taoiseach and he dismissed the idea out of hand. Incredibly, he then went on national television and said there was in fact evidence of profiteering. The place to raise profiteering by food retailers was not in a television interview, but in the meeting with the retailers on Wednesday, face to face. The Government now says that there is price gouging. What is the Government do about it? Will it publish the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond's report? Will it give the report to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC?

Last week, Sinn Féin put forward a substantial plan that would make a big difference by cutting food costs for consumers and the Government accepted there were some good things in our plan. One of the proposals was to get the CCPC to move on price gouging. It is urgent this now happens. The Government cannot sit on its hands while workers and families pick up the bill.

Tá ardú as cuimse imithe ar phraghsanna bia agus tá an Rialtas ag suí timpeall ag déanamh faic. Ní laghdóidh comhrá deas le miondíoltóirí bia na praghsanna. Ní mór don Rialtas idirghabháil dhíreach a dhéanamh le cinntiú go gcuirtear costais a shábháiltear ar aghaidh i bhfoirm praghsanna laghdaithe ag an scipéad airgid.

It is time for the Government to get its act together and deliver for hard-pressed households. The Taoiseach has stated on behalf of the Government that there is evidence of profiteering. What is its plan to tackle it and how will the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission get to grips with price gouging? What other actions will the Government take in the here and now to get food prices down at the till? When will consumers see prices decrease?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I agree with her first point, that is, food prices have increased. Any person doing his or her weekly shop can see that clearly. I can see it myself. I was in a shop only yesterday and could see where the price of many products had increased, such as for example, nappy wipes. The consumer is looking for special offers but there are not as many special offers as there were. There are fewer items in the basket, yet it still costs more. I recognise that the cost of the weekly shop has increased.

However, the Deputy is trying to portray the Government as sitting on its hands and doing nothing, but that is not the case. We have provided billions of euro in support last year and this year to help people. Only a couple of weeks ago, my Department issued a further €200 lump sum payment to our pensioners, carers, people on disability payments and those on the working family payment. As the Minister for Social Protection, my priority is to look after vulnerable groups like our pensioners and carers. That is why we had the double payment for pensioners last year and a €500 for carers and people with disabilities. It is also why we extended the fuel allowance for the over-70s and increased core social welfare payments by €12, the largest increase since 2000.

Sometimes, the Deputy will have to ask herself who pays for this. I will tell her who pays for it – the workers of this country, the taxpayers, the people who get up every day to do their day’s work. They are the ones the Deputy forgets about when she calls in the Dáil for more spending here and there. That is not the way the world works. Someone has to pay for it.

I want to support the people who pay for everything. That is why, in a couple of weeks’ time,-----

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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It is the wrong question the Minister is answering.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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-----we will give a €100 bonus payment to every child on child benefit. This will be on top of the double child benefit that we paid last December.

The Government is supporting working families. We are trying to put money back into the pockets, which is why we cut the income tax rate in January.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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Price gouging.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I am getting around to that.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Minister, without interruption, please.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I just want to make clear what we are doing to help people address the increase in the cost of living. There is a broad range of measures across the board. We have been trying to help people. We understand their concerns.

The Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, got the retailers into a room and met them. Since then, we have suddenly started hearing that some supermarkets are cutting their prices.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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That happened before the meeting.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Some have cut the price of bread.

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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What about nappy wipes?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Some have cut the price of butter. We want to see more of that. On top of that-----

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Deputies might laugh, but a woman or a grandmother like me knows why someone buys nappy wipes. It is because people need them if they have small children. The women who will get the extra €100-----

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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There are no extra payments for-----

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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-----next month in their child benefit payments might appreciate it, so do not be laughing at that.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Please, can we have the Minister, without interruption?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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On top of that, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Coveney, is meeting the CCPC to discuss the retail sector. The Deputy knows we cannot set prices. Like last year, everyone wanted to scaremonger about the price of petrol and diesel, but their prices are back down now. This situation can be cyclical. However, we agree with the Deputy that the cost of living has increased. We are doing everything we can to address it.

As I have said, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, is meeting with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to discuss the retail sector very shortly.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Last year, when costs at the pumps were skyrocketing, nobody was scaremongering. That was a reality that every person experienced when going to fill his or her vehicle. The Minister and I are in agreement. I do my weekly shop as well. We see with our own eyes, do we not, the evidence of increased costs. It is an absolute disaster for people on small or fixed incomes. People are really struggling. We know this. The Taoiseach has said that profiteering is happening. He made that statement. I want to know what the Government is doing about it. Will it publish the dossier compiled by the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond? What is the ask of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission? Has the Minister of State's dossier gone to the commission? The Minister says that the Minister, Deputy Coveney, will meet with it. Is this another chat for the optics or will it trigger real action? The Taoiseach has said that profiteering and price-gouging are now a reality. That is not acceptable. What is the Government's plan to address and get to grips with that and to make it stop?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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We have been clear; there cannot be profiteering on the back of hard-pressed Irish shoppers. I absolutely agree with the Deputy on that. We cannot have that. Nothing is off the table. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, is considering a suite of measures, for example, more transparency on profits in Ireland, and is meeting with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, which has powers to investigate whether there is price-gouging. That is its role. The Minister will be meeting with the commission next week or the following week. I do not have the date but he is going to go through all of those issues with the CCPC. We have to make sure that the Irish consumer is not being disadvantaged.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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Along with my Labour colleagues, I condemn outright the horrific attacks that took place in my constituency this weekend with the burning of tents on Sandwith Street and the intimidation of individuals forced to sleep in tents in and around the Mount Street area. I met with these people over the weekend. I met with people who travelled to Ireland to seek refuge and to make a contribution to our society and who instead have been given no choice but to sleep on the streets awaiting the processing of their applications to stay and the allocation of housing from our wealthy State. It is an appalling indictment that we cannot provide them, apparently, with accommodation. I again say that all of us have to show political leadership in condemning the small number of far-right activists who took this brutal action in burning people out of their homes and burning down tents. I went to see the destruction in the burnt-out alleyway off Sandwith Street and the awful scenes that we saw circulated on social media. I absolutely condemn that small number of individuals, who are in no way representative of Irish society, which has shown a great welcome to those who have come here to seek refuge. The attacks are a stain on our society and those responsible must be brought to justice. I have engaged with the local police and I know that investigations are under way.

The circumstances in which people are forced to sleep on the streets while awaiting the processing of applications are also shameful. The Government needs to do more on this. I have repeatedly raised this issue with the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and I thank him for his engagement with me on this matter over the weekend. Clearly, we need to see increased capacity and the delivery of accommodation at scale for those who come here to seek refuge. I have repeatedly asked for a dedicated Minister for refugee and international protection services. I have called on the Taoiseach to ensure greater co-ordination between Government Departments because there is still a sense that the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has been left to shoulder almost the entire responsibility for housing those who come here to seek refuge and that other Departments have simply not been willing to assist and support that Department and to provide the necessary accommodation, which we have a duty to provide. Indeed, the High Court recently confirmed that the Government is in breach of our international duties in failing to provide accommodation.

This is even worse because we are a nation of emigrants. For generations, Irish people fled to safer shores and went abroad to find prosperity and peace. We would like to think they were not forced to sleep on the streets in the places they went. I ask the Minister to speak with the Taoiseach to ensure that we restore humanity to our refugee accommodation system.

Furthermore, the arrival of refugees and inward migration to Ireland is a positive thing at a time when the Government consistently cites labour shortages as a causal factor in the chronic housing shortage and undersupply of housing. Many of these people are highly skilled and want to come here and work. They told me on Saturday they just want to work to contribute to our society. Work is always the best way to ensure integration. Will the Minister guarantee that the Government will take a more co-ordinated approach urgently to address the crisis in which people are sleeping on the streets who need to be housed and have the right to work?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this. I agree with Deputy Bacik. The scenes in Dublin at the weekend were horrific. Burning people out of their tents are the actions of people who do not represent the vast majority of people in this country. The Deputy was absolutely correct when she said that there is an onus on every single one of us in this House to condemn these actions unreservedly.

The situation we face is unprecedented. More than 100,000 people arrived here from Ukraine and other parts of the world over the last year. These people are fleeing war and bombs falling from the sky and women and children are being blown to pieces; we see it on television. That is what many of these people are leaving behind. When you meet them, they recount their stories and their concerns about the family members they left behind. We have a duty as human beings to try to do our best to help but there are huge challenges. There is no getting away from that because what we face is unprecedented. More than 100,000 people is the equivalent of the entire population of County Kilkenny. It is about trying to find accommodation for all of those people. Have we largely managed to find accommodation? Yes, we have. Has it been perfect? No, it has not. Have there been issues? Yes, of course there have. Like many other countries, we are doing the best we can in very difficult circumstances.

To be clear, there is a cross-government approach to this. A Cabinet committee was specifically set up to deal with issues facing Ukrainians and international protection accommodation seekers. Several Departments feed into it, such as the Department of Defence, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Department of Education, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and my Department of Social Protection. I want to be very clear that this is a cross-government approach. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth will bring in significant additional accommodation this week, which will allow offers of accommodation to be made to many of the international protection applicants seeking accommodation. The Ministers, Deputy O'Gorman and Deputy O'Brien, are working with local authorities and Defence Forces and others on housing. We are examining rapid-build homes which could accommodate 2,000 people across 20 sites. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is working with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and local authorities in relation to refurbishing buildings and how they can accommodate people. As with housing generally, funding or political will is not the issue. We are pumping billions and billions into housing and doing everything we can to try to alleviate the pressures we currently face.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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As the Minister said, it is over a year since the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine. That is over a year in which the Government could and should have pulled together a more coherent, co-ordinated and joined-up response to this crisis. She spoke of a cross-governmental approach but there is no sense of leadership from the Taoiseach on this matter. Instead we heard him seeking to deflect blame, it appears, onto policing and the Garda when this issue is about cross-departmental supports for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in supplying housing. I have been pushing for the use of sites in my constituency, such as Jurys Hotel in Ballsbridge, Baggot St. Hospital and empty office buildings that could be scaled up to provide accommodation. The Minister spoke of the Department of Defence. What about the use of empty barracks or empty housing on Department of Defence sites? The Government said in January that there would be 700 modular homes in place for refugee accommodation by Easter, which we have not seen. Where is the sense of urgency and the massive level of State intervention, which was put to such good effect during Covid?

Where is that sense of co-ordination and of support? Where is that leadership, crucially, from the Taoiseach's Department?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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We are using barracks in Kilbride, Mullingar and Tralee, so we are certainly using assets that the Department of Defence has.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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Not enough.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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We are doing everything we can, but the point here is that more people have been coming. There has been a total of 100,000 arrivals in the last year, which is a lot of people. We have been working and dealing with this issue, but as the Deputy well knows, we need more accommodation and we are doing everything to achieve this.

Almost 30,000 new homes were built in 2022, including almost 7,500 social homes or new builds, more than in any year in the last half century. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, updated the Cabinet today. Some 7,400 new homes were commenced in the first quarter of this year and this is the highest figure since records began. We are, therefore, making progress. Part of the issue here is capacity. If we were to talk to anyone in a construction company or to people seeking to do some work on their houses, they would say it is very hard to get workers. The Deputy is right when she says we need workers in this country-----

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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Yes.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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-----and I am glad to say that 12,500 Ukrainians who have come here are working and contributing to our economy. We want more of this. We want to help them to integrate into the community and to take up employment.

I was in Roscommon on Thursday and I met Ukrainians there. The first thing they always say is "Thank You" to the Irish people for accommodating them. They are genuinely grateful for the help they have got. We are working with them through different programmes, such as the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, to help them to train and reskill. In fact, I gave out certificates because those people are going to get jobs in the local hotel.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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Why are they living in tents?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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We are working on all the different angles and we are getting further accommodation, as I said earlier. We will be announcing it-----

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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This week.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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-----before the end of this week.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I also wish to raise the shocking and inexcusable events that happened on Sandwith Street over the weekend. Obviously, there is no doubt that we should all unreservedly condemn attacks on homeless and vulnerable asylum seekers. We should be clear - from talking to people in the locality, it is absolutely clear - that politically motivated far-right activists were down in the area actively spreading false rumours, stirring up fears and ratcheting up the aggression and threats against the asylum seekers in the encampment. We must absolutely oppose that divisive, hate-filled racism. It is especially tragic that it could happen when we consider the decades and decades of racist discrimination Irish people suffered, of the "no dogs, no blacks and no Irish" kind, in the United States, Britain and elsewhere. We should therefore be clear in condemning this situation.

I must be honest, however, and say that a considerable amount of the responsibility for the situation which developed over the weekend, and other situations, lies at the door of this and successive Governments. First, it is responsible for leaving hundreds of people homeless and living in tents when the State has an obligation to provide them with somewhere to live. Second, it is responsible for failing to deal for over a decade with the dire housing and homelessness crisis and the scandal of tens of thousands of vacant and derelict properties which could be refurbished to address this crisis and to provide housing for all.

In particular, I was struck by the conversations I had with people from the flats in the Pearse Street area. They were appalled by what was done but said that insofar as the far right gained certain traction for its poisonous and divisive ideas, it was because of years and years of neglect of that area. Right beside the encampment, for example, lies St. Andrew's Court, where locals were de-tenanted in 2019. There have been years of promises to refurbish St. Andrew's Court for social housing but, five years later, a Government with a record budget surplus and a €1 billion underspend on housing has not yet approved the money to refurbish that location.

The people to whom I spoke pointed out that at the same time as Twitter is right beside them talking about diversity, they are excluded from employment in these industries. A lot of the stuff that has been built around the area is completely unaffordable for locals. Increasingly, they feel totally excluded and under pressure, and believe there has been an agenda to drive the local community out. That is being done because of the failures of Government and because of processes of gentrification and not, of course, because of refugees. The Government leaves the door open for that kind of thing, and for the far right and its poison, if it fails to deal with the deprivation, housing problems and dereliction in areas like Pearse Street and many other working-class areas.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. I do not agree with anything he said, except for the fact that he is right that what happened on Saturday night was absolutely wrong. Like him, I have condemned it.

The Government has made an unprecedented investment in communities, for example through SICAP, through investment in communities the length and breadth of the country and through the Department of Rural and Community Development. To say that there has been no investment in communities is wrong. We have addressed childcare, in particular childcare costs. There are many other issues. We have full employment in this country. Never before have so many people been working. We have invested in many areas.

The policies we have implemented have paid off in terms of our economy. There are pressures and there will always be challenges. Providing the accommodation we need for all of the people that are coming into this country is a challenge we face. There are people coming in every single day. We are doing everything we can to deal with the pressures and provide more accommodation.

As the Deputy knows, the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, will provide additional accommodation in a number of locations across the country. He hopes to announce offers of accommodation by the end of the week for international production applicants. I know it is difficult for communities. We are asking a lot of them. I understand their concerns. We need communities to work with us. When we work together as a country, we get great results. We worked together through Covid and came out of it better and stronger. We need to work together to deal with the challenges we currently face. People are coming to this country and are looking for asylum, help and support. We want to give them that. We will continue to work together as a Government right across Government. This is not just down to one Minister; we are all working together to try to find solutions and bring forward accommodation so that we can have a roof over people's heads as quickly as possible.

As I said, by the end of this week further accommodation will come on stream. I ask the people out there who have concerns to please work with us. We will continue to engage with them through local authorities and the Government.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I detest racism or anybody who whips it up. To meet desperate people who are homeless on the streets with hatred and fire is appalling and has to be condemned. I am telling the Minister that I spoke to people this morning in the locality who were equally appalled and oppose absolutely what was done. However, they told me there are many vulnerable people in the area. We need to remember there are 800,000 people living in deprivation in the country, many of whom are heavily concentrated in working-class areas like Pearse Street.

The person I spoke to told me the local population has more than halved over the past 20 years because people cannot afford places to live in the area, while gleaming new blocks spring up around them. Unlike employees of Twitter or whatever, who are well paid, they cannot afford to live in their own area. Right beside the site, an area designated for social housing five years ago has not been redeveloped. This is a problem.

There are neglected working-class communities and people being driven out of their own areas because they cannot afford to live in them due to the failure to deal with dereliction and provide social and affordable housing. That creates the conditions that the far right then comes in and exploits. We need to address that as well.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy should not be giving any excuses to the far right------

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I did not give excuses. I said there are no excuses.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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-----because what the far right is doing is wrong and we condemn it. The far-right protesters do not speak for the majority of the people of this country.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Of course not.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I agree with the Deputy there, but we should not be giving them credence or excuses. We have ramped up all of the measures we can in terms of increasing house building. The Deputy talked about dereliction; we have the Croí Cónaithe fund, which we increased only a couple of weeks ago. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, announced increases to €50,000 for a vacant property and €70,000 for a derelict building. These are all measures that will help to address some of the problems. We want to bring more houses back into supply, which involves looking at houses that are currently vacant. Sometimes there are issues and difficulties around that and we are trying to overcome those to bring more houses back into stock.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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The issue of affordable housing has been raised many times before in this House by me and others. The stark reality is that housing is not being delivered quickly enough for those who need it. The Minister's Government has placed a heavy emphasis on the delivery of social housing and that is only right and proper. There is another cohort of people who want to own their own home. They are the people who do not earn enough to get a mortgage from the banks to buy a house on the open market. These are the people who go to work every day, pay their taxes and make a big contribution to our society. They do not avail of any State support and feel they are being left behind and forgotten about. They are renting or staying with parents and they just cannot get on the property ladder because they cannot secure a house at an affordable rate. They are more than willing to pay for their home, but need the vital support that affordable housing schemes are supposed to provide.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage says that a total of 1,757 affordable homes were delivered in 2022, but of that total, almost 700 were cost rentals to families who will never own those houses. Thus, the real figure for people buying their own affordable home last year was less than 1,100. In my home county of Galway, just 21 families were able to buy their first home, all under the first home scheme. Six of them were in the city and 15 were in the county. There is no affordable housing scheme available in Galway at present. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has set a target for this year of delivering 5,500 affordable homes, but the Department warned at the start of the year that meeting this target was likely to prove challenging due to rising costs and supply chain issues. Where does this leave the people I spoke about at the outset, who are caught in the middle? These are the working people who are struggling to continue to pay for rented accommodation at exorbitant rates and struggling to find affordable accommodation. These people feel they are being forgotten about and left in limbo. I know of a number of sites in my constituency of Galway West that have been identified for the building of affordable housing, but there is little or no movement on getting them started. Will the Minister give a commitment that she and her colleague, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, will take a more proactive role in getting these sites moving and get that much-needed affordable housing built for young couples who want to buy a house and call it their own?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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It is important to say we want to do everything we can to make home ownership affordable for people, especially our young people. Housing for All provides funding and commits to delivering 36,000 affordable homes for purchase, as well as 18,000 cost-rental homes, until 2030. Those affordable homes are currently being delivered by local authorities, approved housing bodies, the first home scheme and the Land Development Agency, LDA. With regard to the Deputy's county of Galway, Galway city and county councils published their housing delivery action plans in July 2022. These plans give a comprehensive overview of a projected delivery of affordable housing in Galway in the five-year period to 2026.

It should be said that local authority affordable purchase homes will be made available in Galway this year for the first time in a decade. Both Galway local authorities and the LDA are developing a pipeline of affordable housing delivery into the coming years.

We are making significant progress, but I agree with the Deputy that we need to do more. That is why just last month the Cabinet signed off on €1 billion worth of measures that will significantly increase the delivery of homes. For example, the Croí Cónaithe vacant property refurbishment grant scheme is being increased from €30,000 to €50,000 for vacant properties and from €50,000 to €70,000 for derelict properties. That really is a good scheme. I believe it will be a game-changer for towns and villages and, indeed, for rural areas. We are reducing the cost of construction by scrapping the development levies required to connect new homes with roads, water and other services. That will save up to the value of €12,650 per home on average. We are getting work started on thousands of affordable apartments to rent which have planning permission but which are in limbo. All of these measures will speed up construction immediately.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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I thank the Minister for her response. No doubt she and the Government are committed to try and deliver social and affordable housing.

I should point out that some of the schemes in place at present to help first-time buyers are unlikely to benefit the people in the middle I have been talking about, especially those whose incomes are at the lower end of the scale. I mention the experience of people in my constituency. I want to know because there is a site in my area of Claregalway that is earmarked for affordable housing. No planning application has gone in for that yet and the local authority bought the site over three years ago. It is taking an extremely long time before a local authority applies for planning permission. By the time you buy the site and get the builder on board and building one is talking at least four or five years. That is taking too long.

The focus must be on getting movement on the building of affordable homes. The Government has a responsibility to ensure they are built, and built quickly. Speed is of the essence. While there are plans and targets, housing needs to be delivered more quickly. There are many people who desperately want to get a home of their own to raise a family and see affordable housing as the only opportunity to do so.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I agree with the Deputy. We need to make sure that these plans are moved on and the developments are commenced. I agree with that sentiment.

There have been issues with viability and the ability of developers to unlock private, social and affordable developments and I believe that the Government's waiving of the development levies for one year and the rebating of Irish Water connection charges will prove to be a game-changer in this regard.

As I mentioned earlier, the Croí Cónaithe scheme will be extremely useful in terms of people being able to acquire, perhaps an old family house that had gone into ruins. They may be able to get it at a reasonable price and be able to claim that grant to help them renovate it. That is important.

We also have the option of the first home scheme. It helps buyers bridge the gap between the mortgage that they qualify for and the cost of the house and that helps them to close the deal.

These are all different measures. They are working. We will continue to make sure that we deliver more houses.