Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

acknowledges that:

— the persistent shortfall in the delivery of housing, particularly social, affordable, and cost-rental units, constitutes a structural failure of public policy;

— successive Governments have fallen short of their own housing delivery targets, and a significant proportion of zoned, developable land remains idle due to systemic delays in planning, infrastructure alignment and institutional coordination; and

— local authorities, statutory agencies, and utility providers are frequently constrained by fragmented decision-making, bureaucracy and lack of accountability, leading to protracted delivery timelines, despite the availability of zoned and demand-sensitive lands;

further recognises that:

— excessive procedural rigidity in planning, procurement, and utility coordination, while rooted in the need for accountability, has created a delivery environment that is adversarial, inefficient, and increasingly unfit for the urgency of the housing crisis; and

— a generation of young Irish people are increasingly being forced to emigrate, as any possibility of home ownership slips further out of reach, with house prices soaring and affordable supply at record lows, and many now face the harsh reality that they may never be able to buy a home or even afford to live in the communities where they were born and raised; and accordingly, calls on the Government to:

— declare a National Housing and Infrastructure Emergency and introduce time-bound emergency legislation, enabling local authorities and developers to accelerate delivery of housing on already-zoned, infrastructure-ready land;

— establish a dedicated Housing Delivery Acceleration Taskforce, reporting on a regional basis directly to the Taoiseach, comprising senior officials from the Departments of Housing, Local Government and Heritage; Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation; Transport; Uisce Éireann (formerly Irish Water); the Construction Industry Federation; ESB Executives; and Chief Executives of respective Councils, to coordinate and address cross-agency blockages, with all reports to be published quarterly;

— introduce a statutory obligation on local authorities to hold round table pre-planning meetings within 30 days of request, with minutes to be available to both parties for further reference;

— amend national planning policy to permit pre-approved, standardised housing designs for social and affordable developments, to reduce delays and professional duplication, while maintaining compliance with Building Regulations and Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2014;

— reform rural housing guidelines, to permit housing on family-held farmland for more than one family member, subject to percolation and safety standards;

— reform planning exemption regulations, to allow for up to 63 square meter structures for modular homes, extensions, granny flats (attached/unattached), or garage conversions, with enabling legislation to be presented by 30th October, 2025;

— restrict planning objections to persons with local standing, to eliminate serial objectors;

— instruct Uisce Éireann to publish a transparent and time-bound schedule of infrastructure delivery, prioritising zones with planning permission or active land management, making additional funding available to Uisce Éireann where they meet or surpass the schedule;

— in towns with no Uisce Éireann sewage schemes, assign funding to community development companies to employ consultants that can draw up schemes to Uisce Éireann specification, enabling fast track delivery of sewage schemes in towns not covered by Uisce Éireann, and additionally, to assign funding for lands for water treatment plants and for delivery of overall project;

— ensure that Uisce Éireann recognise contractors formerly experienced in Group Water Schemes/Council Schemes (sewage/water) as competent contractors for frameworks inclusion;

— introduce a performance-linked funding model for local authorities, tied to:

— activation rates of zoned land;

— timely refurbishment and re-letting of vacant social housing units; and

— compliance with prescribed turnaround times in housing delivery processes;

— ensure high-performing councils are publicly recognised and resourced through bonus allocations, with fast-tracked funding drawdown, with underperforming council results published publicly:

— with performance of local authorities under the performance-linked metrics to be reported to the Housing Delivery Acceleration Taskforce quarterly; and

— where a local authority underperforms for three consecutive quarters, the Chief Executive Officer and Director of Housing will be called on to account for under-performance;

— require Uisce Éireann, ESB and local authorities to jointly publish a quarterly housing infrastructure delivery scorecard, detailing progress on enabling works, void turnarounds, and utility connections by county, with a focus on ensuring all zoned land is serviced;

— ensure all local authority Chief Executive contracts include performance related clauses going forward;

— develop a streamlined, fast-tracked system allowing local authorities to recoup 95 per cent of costs associated with bringing voids back into productive use within 30 days of completion, financed by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage;

— introduce a streamlined approval of Part I, Section 5 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, exemption under Croí Cónaithe, where there have been no prohibition notices linked to the property in the last seven years;

— reform procurement thresholds within six months, to allow proven small- and mid-sized public and private builders, with a track record of compliant delivery within the public or private sector in the past five years, to qualify for public housing frameworks;

— in line with European Union (EU) Value Added Tax (VAT) Directive allowances, introduce a temporarily reduced VAT rate of 5 per cent on construction materials for housing development for the term of the declared emergency;

— fast-track key apprenticeships in construction and trades by developing modular, dual-delivery formats that retain EU-mandated standards, while reducing time to certification;

— direct SOLAS, Education and Training Boards and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, to expand access to construction skills training, particularly in regions with below-average output;

— mandate the Central Bank of Ireland and the Department of Finance to report quarterly on the proportion of residential units acquired by bulk purchasers and non-resident buyers, with a view to transparency and demand-side management; and

— upgrade all phase 2 lands to phase 1, to enable urgent building on zoned land and immediately bring infrastructure required for immediate development.

It is rather regrettable that the Government has not accepted this motion. I read the Government's amendment and all it does is tell us how great everything is. If everything was great, we would not have young people be leaving this country for lack of housing or data from the Central Bank and the CSO. All we are doing is putting constructive proposals together to try to help the housing situation. This is not having a go at Government. This about sitting down with the various stakeholders to try to make sure we drive this forward. We have always said to the leaders of the country that if it does not take a housing emergency to drive things, in social and affordable housing, we will still be talking about this in a few years' time. This legislation should be fast-tracked as happened with the former Minister Eamon Ryan's legislation on jet engines, which was put through in a day. We were able to get rid of a lot of the bureaucracy is holding things up.

Today the Government has decided to oppose what we are saying. We have said is that there should be a pre-planning meeting within 30 days. Obviously, the Government does not think people should have that. A builder should be entitled to a pre-planning meeting within 30 days. Irish Water needs to get funding but it needs to be targeted. It needs to be on condition of delivery and time of delivery. What is a zoned site or what is a zoned area for housing? There could be a zoned area where no transport plan has been done by the councils. I can show plenty of proof of that, even though the land has been zoned for a number of years. It may have no Irish Water infrastructure, no sewerage infrastructure and no electricity. That is a bare, naked site. We need to do up a list of sites that are ready to go.

This is an idea that could be implemented overnight. This idea does not cost money. Darragh O'Brien gave €30 million to the councils and Irish Water for towns that had no water or sewerage infrastructure. For sewerage schemes, he said he wanted Irish Water and the councils to get together. That was three years ago. This is not about money; it is about not delivering. Nothing has happened in Ireland; not one red cent has been spent. I am asking the Government to give the money to community development groups. They are willing to do the work. I have spoken to them. They will help the Government to deliver houses. I am talking about doing properly to Irish Water specifications and not any lesser specifications.

Regarding the procurement rules, about which everyone knows and which were raised with the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste, if a person builds 100 houses in the private sector but has not done a State job in the past five years, they are not allowed on to the framework. That is wrong. This person might be as good a builder as someone else. On top of that, if people who were contractors to the councils and to local group water schemes do not go through a big process with Irish Water, they are not nominated for the framework contracts. Those are two simple things that could be done overnight.

The Minister of State knows about phase 2 lands and that 70% of phase 1 has to be built. We need to make as much land available as possible and look to see where the sewerage and water infrastructure is so builders are ready to go. Why are we holding up sites, whether as a result of planning or whatever, for builders? We know what the density of a site is supposed to be. We know about the designs and everything else but we are holding up builders from getting going.

Regarding section 5 exemptions, croí cónaithe is a great scheme. I am not taking from it but the problem is getting into the scheme. Someone might have a house that is, say, 100 years old. Depending on the council, if the owner knocked a chimney because it was cracked or put a porch onto the house in the 1970s, to get into the croí cónaithe scheme, the council might say the owner has to go for full planning permission because a change was made to the house, and we see this week in, week out. That is complete lunacy. There is a simple way of doing that. If there has been no prohibition notice lodged with the council in the past seven years, the owner should be given the go-ahead.

We went for a temporary VAT reduction on materials. It is about €15,000 because we did not go for the whole house for the simple reason that it is given a six- to 12-months' period. If it was done and not passed on, then it has to revert. We have to try things.

The Minister of State is aware that if there is a void, the council gets about €11,000 from the Department. A lot of these houses are costing from €30,000 to €50,000 to do up. The Department needs to guarantee them the money within 30 days of finishing, but it needs to be 95% of the cost. Councils are picking the best houses to do up, because these will obviously cost the least amount of money. Councils are telling me this. We need to make sure we do that.

On social housing, why are we designing different houses in different counties in different ways, with architects designing them and proposals going back and forth to the Department? Why do we not have standardised, two-, three- and four-bedroom houses, for the country? If a house has seven or ten windows, they should be of a standard size. There should be standard specification, standard everything in the way we regularise it and cut out all this craic of over and back.

On rural housing guidelines, we see problems where family members are trying to build. More than one should be allowed to build because, at the end of the day, we have an emergency and if we have an emergency, we have to try to sort it out. Family members need to be allowed to build on farmland, provided sightlines and percolation tests are okay. On top of that, we see local need. If a teacher moves to an area in rural Ireland, they are needed in that area but the problem is they are not from that area originally and some councils will not give them planning permission.

On modulars and granny flats, we are proposing 600 sq. ft. or 63 sq. m. These should be exempt, provided they are built at the back of an existing house. If the garage is at the back of the house and can be converted, it should exempt. This is how we will get things rolling, helping people to put a roof over their heads. The same should apply to modular homes. I believe the modular homes for Ukrainians are 600 sq. ft.

On top of that, we are allowing someone from, say, Waterford to object to someone building in Galway. We need to bring in a rule that a person has the right to object if they are from that area. Someone from 120 miles to 130 miles away should not be in a position to object. This needs to be sorted.

We need to produce performance-linked funding for local authorities. The better and more aggressive a local authority is, the more funding it should get to build houses. We need to reward high-performing councils. Production of and housing delivery should be built into CEO contracts for the simple reason that we have to drive and have incentives for delivery.

I know the Taoiseach has a sort of a task force or a housing body set up, but we need quarterly reports in each area from the likes of the ESB, Irish Water and the local authorities. This would be a public scorecard on how the councils are performing around the country.

On apprenticeships, we need to try to fast-forward it. The excuse has always been that Covid held them up. Some youngsters spent up to six years trying to get a four-year course done. If we can do it of teachers, we should be able to do it for the construction industry, because it is a critically important industry at this time.

Regarding mandatory reporting, we know outside interests buy huge tracts of houses. There has to be mandatory reporting of non-residents buying large blocks of housing. We need to know what the pressures are and what is happening in this country.

It is disappointing when such simple, straightforward solutions have been put forward in relation to the whole housing issue. The Government has done things. I am not saying it has not. I have said that croí cónaithe is a good thing and that some of the rent reliefs are good. I am not against that. The Minister of State talks about extra money, but money might not be the only problem. The roadblocks are blocking people. Everyone is talking about social and affordable housing. Our youngsters are leaving the country because they cannot see a future in a house. Together in this Dáil we need to solve that problem.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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It is disappointing that the Minister of State seems to be putting in amendments opposing the proposal. If this proposal was worked on, it would create a strong solution in relation to housing. Sometimes I wonder what the reasoning is behind the Government trying to block any good proposal being put forward. I thank Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice, John Campbell and Mark Nolan for putting this motion together.

Housing is one of the most pressing issues of our time. We must declare a national housing and infrastructure emergency to enable accelerated housing delivery. This is not just a matter of policy; it is a matter of urgency and necessity. We in Independent Ireland have had this in our policies since we were formed. We have solutions to the crisis. We want to mandate round-table pre-planning meetings within 30 days and make sure that applicants have access to the minutes of the meetings. This will ensure they know exactly what planners are looking for. We want to establish a housing delivery acceleration task force reporting to the Taoiseach to resolve interagency delays. We have empty local authority houses all over the country. They need to be turned around immediately. If these houses need to be retrofitted, that can be done while there are people in the houses. Why wait?

Rural housing guidelines should be reformed to allow multiple homes on family farmland. Week in, week out, daughters and sons of farmers come to see me about trying to get planning on their own land. The hoops they have to go through are unbelievable. God help us if there is more than one daughter or son in a family. The Government must think people should have only one child, like a Chinese family. We are proposing that standardised housing designs be permitted to speed up planning while complying with regulations. We want to expand planning exemptions for modular homes and conversions of up to 63 sq. m. Day after day, we are here in the Dáil constantly speaking on housing and homelessness, with more than 15,000 people homeless. This is a very simple solution, to allow people with a bit of extra land to put a modular home on their property without all of the planning red tape. If we are serious about stopping this crisis we are in, this is a huge way to plug it. Planning objections should be restricted to those with local concerns to curb serial objectors. It is absolutely mad to think a man in Donegal can object to a planning proposal on Mizen Head.

We want to fast-track construction apprenticeships for modular dual delivery and expand access to skills training in regions with low construction output. This is not rocket science; it is basic stuff. Local authorities' CEO contracts should be tied to performance on housing delivery. Make them accountable. Make everybody accountable. We want to introduce performance-linked funding for local authorities based on delivery metrics. High-performing councils should be rewarded with bonuses and public recognition, while accountability would be required from the underperforming ones.

To further support construction, we propose a temporary reduction of VAT on housing construction materials to 5%. Additionally, we will create a 30-day cost-recovery mechanism paid at 95% to provide social housing refurbishment. This will incentivise quick turnaround and utilisation of existing housing stock.

Our motion also advocates for publishing an Uisce Éireann delivery schedule, with additional funding for timely completion, and funding water and sewerage schemes via local community groups where Uisce Éireann does not provide the service. Uisce Éireann is an uncontrollable train and the Government has stood idly by and allowed that to happen. I look at places like Dunmanway, which may not have a sewerage system or build a house for the next ten, 15 or 20 years - we do not know. It is the same in Ballydehob, Shannonvale, Goleen and Rosscarbery. They have been waiting for 25 years while raw sewage pours into the sea. There is no Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, to be found anywhere. My God, if it was a farmer doing that, he would be put out of business within hours.

Yesterday, I spoke at length about a lady in Bantry, Jennifer Marley, who is 88 years of age. She is going to be without a home in the next number of weeks. Can anyone imagine the stress that woman is going through at 88 years of age trying to find a simple, basic home to call her own? She does not mind who owns it. She has been asked to leave the house she lives in. There are others such as an 82-year-old person from Dunmanway, an 80-year-old in Bantry, a 74-year-old in Timoleague and in Bandon two people, aged 60 and 70 years old, every one of whom deserves the respect to have a home. If the Government does not support the motion we are putting forward, which is for the general good to try to turn this around, it shows me that more people will be added to that list.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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I support the motion on housing tabled by my colleagues in the Independent Technical Group. This is probably the 20th or 25th discussion on housing that we have had since the start of the year. I worry that as we are almost 10% through the lifetime of this Dáil, we will end up not getting anything done. We need to focus very quickly on putting in some measures that will actually deliver housing.

I mentioned last week the call by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, chairman, Sean O'Driscoll, to get real about the infrastructure we need, such as the water services and the electricity grid, to provide for housing. That is one angle we have to look at. We also have to be very creative about where we find the housing. Obviously, a massive number of new-builds are needed. I want to re-emphasise my disagreement with the mantra that we have to get overseas investment building the houses. They tend to be high-rent units that consign people to fiscal slavery. They will never be able to afford to get out of that. There are going to be many transients in a lot of areas and a lack of community building. We need to build housing, build communities and put the infrastructure in place alongside that.

I have mentioned these examples previously but I will go through a few ideas again. In Dublin's suburbs where there are older demographics, there are four-bedroom houses with one person living in the house. There is nowhere for that person to go to access the services and community network. However, there is an opportunity to release some equity by turning the upper floor into a starter home and letting the person already living in the property have the lower floor. That could be a win-win situation for everyone because they would not be moving from the community. There was some talk about this in terms of the garden starter homes which could be the stereotypical granny flats down the line. We need to get a bit looser on that. So many people are forced into building small modular homes on their properties and a huge nut is being cracked in terms of planning regulations. Maybe we need to look at the planning laws at this stage, as Deputy Collins has said, and instead of refusing outright, put in meaningful conditions to make it viable for people to live in the area.

I am all for rural communities being able to build on family land. We had the bungalow blight of the 1970s with poorly designed houses. While I agree with Deputies Collins and Fitzmaurice about having a standard type of house, it has to be a high-quality standard that is energy efficient and can produce its own solar electricity to power electric vehicles, EVs. Let people live and work in rural communities. That would be a win-win for everyone.

I praise the croí cónaithe scheme. It has done quite well so far but we need to expand on that. We need to focus microscopically on vacant units in rural towns and villages and allow a conversion scheme where shops have space overhead that has gone derelict. This should be done through a carrot-and-stick approach whereby unused vacant units would be penalised but incentives would be provided to redevelop them. There are people on the housing list who have nowhere to go. I said this last week but it is important. There are people on Dublin housing lists who may move down the country but they do not want to take the risk in case they do not like it. They will probably like the better school accommodation and the sense of community and they will regenerate areas, keeping the post offices and the banks open. However, if they feel they are going to lose their place on the Dublin house list, they are not even going to try it. That is why there should be a five-year clawback in that respect. Again, it is a win-win situation.

In regard to what is happening in strategic development zones, SDZs, in my area, Clonburris SDZ, there are about 8,000 houses. As I mentioned to the Taoiseach last week, if someone has approval for €480,000 on the affordable housing scheme, the price then goes up to €485,000 and they have to reapply and start again.

It is putting a lot of people out of the market. Aside from affordable housing, there should be a special category set aside within a 5 km radius for anyone who has grown up in an area or spent at least ten years there so that people who grew up in an area can continue to live there. It fosters community cohesion when people can live and work near where they grew up with their parents and families and all the supports.

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

"recognises that:

— Housing for All sets out an ambitious multi-annual programme that seeks to deliver more than 300,000 new homes by 2030;

— record levels of investment are being provided for the delivery of housing in 2025, with overall capital funding now available of almost €6.8 billion;

— the capital provision for 2025 is supplemented by a further €1.65 billion in current funding to address housing need;

— over 36,700 social homes have been delivered under Housing for All to Q4 2024, and, in 2023, nearly 12,000 social homes were delivered, including 8,110 new-build social homes, the highest level of delivery of new-build social housing since 1975, and, in 2024, 10,595 social homes were delivered, including 7,871 new builds, 1,501 acquisitions and 1,223 leasing units;

— nearly 13,000 affordable housing supports have been delivered since the launch of Housing for All to December 2024, by Approved Housing Bodies, local authorities, and the Land Development Agency (LDA), alongside schemes, such as the First Home Scheme and the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant; and

— over 7,100 affordable housing supports were delivered in 2024, the highest yearly delivery to date, exceeding that year's target of 6,400;

further recognises that:

— while housing supply has increased significantly in recent years, much more needs to be achieved;

— the measures introduced under Housing for All have helped establish a solid platform to 'scale-up' delivery of housing in the short-term and secure a sustainable level of supply that will help us meet demand;

— the measures committed to in the Programme for Government 2025, including a new housing plan, building on the successes of Housing for All, will help us meet the enormous challenge of delivering more than 300,000 new homes by 2030;

— the Government's new national housing plan will incorporate pragmatic actions to boost housing activity in the short-term, coupled with strategic deliverables to drive comprehensive systemic change, and a subsequent increase in supply into the long-term; and

— there has been record levels of investment in infrastructure under the current National Development Plan 2021 to 2030 (NDP);

acknowledges that:

— new capital investment in infrastructure, particularly to support housing targets, is being considered in the context of the ongoing review of the NDP;

— our water networks require ongoing and sustained investment, to bring these up to the required standard of treatment, to deal with population growth, and to adapt to the impacts of climate change;

— this Government is delivering a sustainable funding path to further enhance the ongoing significant improvements in our public water and wastewater services;

— record funding has been allocated between 2020 and 2024, and this will continue under the NDP 2026-2030, to prioritise water and wastewater infrastructure, and to deliver the capacity to facilitate housing development in our towns and villages;

— Uisce Éireann has ramped up capital delivery for water services and infrastructure, from €300 million in 2014, to roughly €1.3 billion in 2024, and in 2025, the Exchequer will provide just over €2.2 billion in funding to Uisce Éireann;

— in 2024, Uisce Éireann issued 4,252 connections agreements associated with 41,169 housing units;

— the Programme for Government 2025 commits to introduce statutory timelines for pre-connections, water and wastewater, and energy connection agreements, to ensure large developments can proceed without delay, and to establish a new procedure for large developments, above 100 units, where a developer can meet local authority planners and Uisce Éireann on site, to resolve issues at pre-planning stage;

— Ireland is currently experiencing high demand for new electrical connections driven by population growth, industrial development and accelerated electrification targets;

— over the last four years, ESB Networks has connected over 147,000 homes and businesses to the distribution network;

— in response to increased demand the electricity system operators, ESB Networks and EirGrid, have prepared business plans that propose significantly increased investment in the electricity grid for the period 2026-2030, and the Government looks forward to the conclusion of the Sixth Price Review by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, which will provide a clear framework for investment in the electricity grid;

— with regard to the provision of water services, energy and roads infrastructure, Uisce Éireann, ESB and individual road authorities, have statutory responsibility for the planning, delivery and maintenance of infrastructure at local levels, and the scope, prioritisation and progression of individual projects is a matter for the respective statutory body, and is subject to obtaining the necessary consents; and

— the Housing Activation Office (HAO) being established in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, will engage and align stakeholders, including local authorities, utility and infrastructure providers, industry and others, to ensure that infrastructure blockages are addressed in a coordinated way, in order to enable housing development;

further acknowledges that:

— significant legislative and system level reform of the planning system is progressing;

— on 30th April, 2025, Dáil Éireann approved the revised National Planning Framework (NPF), which provides the basis for the review and updating of the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy and local authority development plans to reflect critical matters, such as updated housing figures or projected jobs growth, including through the zoning of land for residential, employment and a range of other purposes;

— to see the revised NPF translated to a local basis as urgently as possible, local authorities have been advised to prepare for the process of reviewing and updating their development plans, to align with the revised NPF;

— a series of reforms have been progressed to support a well-resourced planning system, including the implementation of the Ministerial Action Plan on Planning Resources, which will strengthen the planning system and support the timely delivery of critical infrastructure and housing;

— the Government is prioritising the commencement of the Planning and Development Act 2024, on a phased basis as outlined in the Programme for Government, and that the Act represents the most comprehensive review of planning legislation since 2000, and will reform and streamline the planning process, and support timely decision making for housing and strategic infrastructure projects;

— Part 17 of the Planning and Development Act 2024 was commenced on 18th June, to enable the establishment of An Coimisiún Pleanála to replace An Bord Pleanála;

— under the Planning and Development Act 2024, the new Urban Development Zones provisions will enable the identification by local authorities of suitable locations for further housing development at scale, and the ability for the LDA and Regional Assemblies to bring appropriate sites to the attention of local authorities and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, with work to begin as soon as possible;

— the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025, to be enacted before this summer recess, will ensure sufficient time is given to activate planning permissions for much needed housing; and

— a review of the exempted development provisions is underway, that will provide further options for the provision of housing, with a public consultation to commence this month and updated regulations to come into force later this year;

notes that:

— Section 90 of the recently enacted Planning and Development Act 2024, provides for a pre-application consultation with planning authorities;

— the Planning and Development Act 2024, allows a member of the public to make a submission on a planning application as part of the public participation process, and the Act of 2024 will introduce a new procedure to deal with spurious planning submissions and appeals, and a submission in relation to a planning application, an appeal or a judicial review must be accompanied by a statutory declaration stating that the submission, appeal or judicial review is not being done for the purposes of delaying a development or for receiving a payment, and also, penalties were introduced in respect of anyone making a false declaration;

— updated Rural Housing Guidelines are currently being prepared by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which will set out relevant planning criteria to be applied in local authority development plans for rural housing, based on the high-level policy framework set by the NPF;

— in May, 2021, the Government introduced a series of measures to prevent the bulk buying of houses and duplexes by a single buyer, and to increase home ownership;

— overall, since May, 2021, a total estimate of over 50,000 houses and duplex units received planning permission, with conditions restricting the bulk purchasing or multiple sales to a single purchaser;

— a higher stamp duty on the cumulative purchase of 10 or more residential properties, excluding apartments, was increased to 15 per cent in Budget 2025; and

— the Programme for Government 2025 commits to maintaining the owner occupier guarantee in planning regulations for houses and duplexes, and keeping the stamp duty surcharges under review, to ensure they prohibit bulk purchases;

further notes that:

— the Government continues to support local authorities in the delivery of housing programmes, with almost €4.8 billion provided to the authorities in 2024, and this will increase further in 2025;

— the recently established Local Democracy Taskforce will:

— develop proposals to rebalance the power between elected councillors and the executive, including identifying opportunities to better use the existing, or specify more reserved powers/functions, and mandatory oversight responsibilities for councillors, either at plenary or municipal district level, particularly in respect of budgetary oversight;

— explore mechanisms to ensure that the policy decisions of local authority executives are transparent, and that executives must consult with and be accountable to the council for those policy decisions;

— consider ways for local authorities to increase fiscal autonomy, through the amount of own resources, including wider variation options for Local Property Tax, by reviewing existing revenue-raising and debt management options, and matched funding requirements and new/alternative revenue raising powers; and

— examine ways to ensure that local priorities for central Government grant funding are decided upon by the council;

— a concerted effort is being made to expand capacity on existing apprenticeship programmes, and Budget 2025 has seen the single largest investment in core apprenticeship funding since the formation of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, in 2020, an increase of 83 per cent to €77.4 million, and this investment will support the continued growth of apprenticeship training capacity, with 6,319 registering to join construction and construction related programmes in 2024, a rise from 4,463 in 2019;

— the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science works with sectoral partners, such as SOLAS, the National Construction Training Centre, Skillnet Ireland, and Education and Training Boards (ETBs), to increase skills supply through the existing network of skills provision across the tertiary system;

— the number of enrolments in Nearly Zero Energy Building/Retrofit training courses, has increased steadily from 363 when the first centre opened in 2020, to 7,166 enrolments in 2024, and there has been a cumulative total of over 15,000 enrolments across the Centres of Excellence;

— the Careers in Construction Action Plan, outlines structural, promotional, and upskilling initiatives to tackle barriers to construction careers, promote career opportunities and make construction jobs more attractive to women; and

— in addition, the Future Building initiative operates jointly between the Department of Social Protection and ETBs Ireland, and works to match job seekers with training and employment opportunities in the sector, and Skillnet Ireland and CitA launched the MMC Accelerate platform in May, 2025, which includes information on training opportunities around the country; and

recognises that:

— the Government is investing record levels of capital funding in critical infrastructure, including in the areas of water and energy, and will continue to do so under the review of the NDP for the period 2025 to 2035, to be finalised by end July;

— a HAO in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, is being established to identify and seek to address barriers to the delivery of public infrastructure projects needed to enable housing development at local level, through the alignment of funding and coordination of infrastructure providers;

— an Infrastructure Division has been established in the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, that will lead a process of infrastructure reform; and

— the Government agreed to an ambitious expansion to the remit of the LDA to support the delivery of housing, including unlocking key strategic public lands for urban brownfield delivery, through infrastructure investment, and to support local authorities, the HAO and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, in master planning and infrastructure provision in new towns and districts.".

I thank Deputies Fitzmaurice, Collins, O’Donoghue and O’Flynn for their motion and for instigating an important debate. I believe in productive debates that are solutions orientated and I acknowledge many of the items in the motion before us. It is in that spirit of taking on board those items, while acknowledging the work that is going on within the Government, that I will make my comments here and address some of the items that have been raised in the Independent Ireland motion.

Everything we seek to do as a Government is to build on the progress made through Housing for All. It is the Government’s number one priority to ensure we use every means available to us to increase the supply of homes across the country. That includes using our local authorities, our approved housing bodies, AHBs, the Land Development Agency and the private sector. Many ideological debates happen in this Chamber every day, and the people out there do not really care for those ideological debates. They want homes and they do not care whether it is local authority, approved housing body, the LDA or the private sector that delivers those homes. They just want those homes. That is what we are about as a Government.

I acknowledge the disappointing dip we saw last year in the number of homes built due to the 23% reduction in apartment completions. However, it is important to reflect on the progress we have seen in recent years. Back in 2012 and 2013, fewer than 5,000 homes were delivered. In 2022 and 2023, it was 30,000 and 32,000, respectively. Of course we need to do more; I am not for one second suggesting we are doing enough. More than 92,000 homes have been delivered in recent years but it has to grow to 50,000 a year on average. Over 48,000 social homes have been delivered in the last five years. That is the highest rate since the 1970s, which was before I was born. There is also a very strong pipeline of over 24,000 social homes at various stages of design build that will be delivered over the coming years.

Housing for All has provided for the introduction of a number of new affordable housing supports enabling the delivery of significant numbers of affordable homes, both new builds and those that have been brought back into use. Nearly 13,000 affordable housing supports were delivered since the launch of Housing for All to December 2024 by AHBs, local authorities and the LDA, alongside schemes such as the first-home scheme, the local authority affordable purchase scheme and the vacant property refurbishment grant, which a number of Deputies have mentioned during the debate. Over 7,100 affordable supports were provided last year, which was the highest year of delivery to date. The Government has introduced a range of measures in recent months that will ensure we are in a position to continue with the largest social and affordable housing programme in this country, investing nearly €7 billion of taxpayers' money.

On the planning matters that were raised in the motion, the revised national planning framework provides the basis for the review of the regional economic and spatial strategies and the local authority development plans. Given the urgent need to ensure that we have updated housing requirements incorporated into the planning system as quickly as possible to address housing need and demand, local authorities will be required to vary their current development plans in order to ensure we have sufficient zoning of land to deliver the homes we need. We will be informing local authorities very shortly as to their housing growth requirements to ensure that what we approved in this Chamber on the NPF is translated into local authority development plans as quickly as possible.

On the planning system, we have progressed a number of reforms to streamline a well-resourced planning system. I sat on the Oireachtas joint committee on housing with the Deputies sitting opposite me for years when we went through that Bill, which was the third largest piece of legislation in the history of the State, and a comprehensive review of our planning system, which will ensure we have a streamlined planning process into the future. That Act is being commenced on a phased basis and does represent a radical reform of our planning system. As part of the implementation of the Planning and Development Act 2024, the new urban development zones will enable strategically placed housing developments with the order already signed, which will enable local authorities to identify suitable sites for urban development zones, UDZs, in the context of their variation process. Furthermore, the planning and development Bill 2025, which was approved by Cabinet for priority drafting on 27 May, will ensure sufficient time is given to activate planning permissions for much-needed housing across the country. It is intended to have the Bill enacted before the summer recess.

Deputies opposite have also raised exempted development regulations. The Department is undertaking a review of these provisions that will provide further options for the provision of housing. A public consultation is expected to commence next week on those. Part 17 of the Planning and Development Act 2024, which was commenced on 18 June, enables the establishment of An Coimisiún Pleanála to replace An Bord Pleanála. All these measures are about bringing forward supply and ensuring we do not lose out on important developments through delays or because of developments timing out. It is about ensuring we have timely decision-making across our planning system so that we can introduce certainty for developers to allow them to get on and do what they do best, which is building homes.

The motion calls for further reform of the planning process including governance, implementation and reporting structures. Again, we have made significant changes in this regard. Section 90 of the recently enacted Planning and Development Act 2024 provides for a pre-application and consultation with planning authorities. It also allows a member of the public to make submissions on a planning application as part of the public participation process. The Act will also introduce a new procedure to deal with spurious planning submissions and appeals. A submission in relation to a planning application, appeal or judicial review must be accompanied by a statutory declaration stating that the submission, appeal or judicial review is not being done for the purpose of delaying a development or receiving a payment. Penalties are being introduced in respect of anyone making a false declaration.

The motion also refers to rural housing guidelines, which are under review by the Department. There is a need to ensure they are carefully calibrated to support the development of rural one-off housing while also ensuring appropriate safeguards are in place. These changes will improve transparency, timeliness and accessibility in our planning process.

The motion calls for changes to the performance and functions of local authorities. I refer Deputies to the local democracy task force, which I have established. It will have its first meeting tomorrow in the Custom House. It will develop proposals to rebalance the power between elected councillors and the executive. It will also explore mechanisms to ensure the policy decisions of local authority executives are transparent and that executives are fully accountable to the council. It will also consider ways for local authorities to increase fiscal autonomy and will review existing revenue-raising and debt management options, match-funding requirements and new alternative revenue-raising powers.

Our new national housing plan will be delivered in the coming months to ensure we put in place the right policies. Many of the items in the motion before the House are items that we as a Government are working on extensively.

I assure the Deputies that as we move through the next weeks and months, they will continue to see a range of measures implemented which seek to stimulate the construction sector, reduce the overall cost of development and deliver the step change to get to 50,000 housing units. I am under no illusions as to the challenges in getting to that figure but that is what gets me up in the morning. I am determined to make that step change to assist and play my role, working in collaboration with other Deputies. Debates like this that are productive and solutions-orientated are beneficial. Debates where we just shout over and back and shout insults are not productive. I hope the remainder of the debate will be conducted in the spirit in which it opened.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. I do not doubt the sincerity of his reply, but in the amendment put forward by the Department, 28 parts are exactly the same, cut and pasted verbatim from a previous amendment to a recent Private Member's motion. Five to six are unique in relation to the application because of the structure of the motion, ten are unique to the local authority element and ten are reworded from previous debates. I have no doubt about the Minister of State's personal sincerity but the amendment is a disgrace. It is rehashed and reused. It is obvious when no other member of the Front Bench or back bench from any of the groups is sitting here for this debate. Not even one of the Lowry group, who claim to be independent, are here.

There is a moment in the life of all nations when the status quo become not just unacceptable but indefensible. This is one of the moments. Housing is not merely about economic issues; it is a question of justice, dignity and of intergenerational trust. Yet, this Government has allowed a generation of Irish people to be pushed further and further from the possibility of homeownership. This is not because we do not have the land or labour is unavailable but because of our systems - planning, utilities, procedures and procurement. They have become relics of a past Ireland. They do not meet the challenges a modern Ireland demands. In an urban Ireland, particularly in the city of Cork, which I represent, and the urban areas of Mallow, this failure takes on a sharper sting. We see scaffolding of hope being replaced by scaffolding that will never rise. Families pay record rents while new homes remain trapped in the webs of objections, deadlock and endless consultation. Zoned lands lie idle while housing lists grow. Children grow up in temporary accommodation, which has become permanent through official and Government neglect. This motion does something successive Governments have been too timid to attempt - it demands structural change, not rhetorical sympathy. It names the problem for what it is. This is a national housing emergency. The sooner the Government recognises that, the better. The motion puts forward a framework grounded not in ideology but in pragmatism. We call for emergency legislation not to abandon the standards but to match the urgency and efficiency required. We propose a housing delivery acceleration task force reporting directly to the Taoiseach because too often, accountability in this country and in this Government is lost in the fog of overlapping jurisdiction - he said it, he is in charge of that and I do not know who took responsibility for it. That is the usual we hear in the Chamber as we wring our hands.

Homes cannot be built if the pipes, wires and roads cannot be co-ordinated. A shovel cannot break ground if water and power cannot follow. Synchronised, timebound public scorecards are needed, as my good colleague mentioned. The public has a right to know the delays, where they are and who by. That is the minimum we can give them. I also call for the restoration of logical planning laws and the standardisation of housing templates, which could be preapproved, saving months of duplication. We are all sick of the objections of those with no local connection and the serial objectors. They weaponise bureaucracy and must no longer derail the common good of delivering housing for this country. As a legislator in a constituency that is 50:50 rural and urban, I know housing is not just about supply; it is about access, opportunity and fairness. When my constituents see a vacant council house lie empty for six to 12 months, they do not see the complexity of the issue; they see Government failure. We propose a quick turnaround standard for voids that fast-tracks funding so that councils can meet the mark and public scrutiny for those that do not. Let us be bold in this House. We cannot solve this problem with the same procurement rules, excluding the very builders who built the first homes in Ireland. Logical providers and mid-sized contractors must be allowed back in the arena to compete. Likewise, apprenticeship programmes must be fast-tracked not by lowering standards but by modernising delivery and matching the needs of this decade, not previous decades. This motion is unapologetic and ambitious but not arrogant, as the Minister of State admitted. It is a recognition of half-measures that have failed in the scale of a housing crisis that demands a new contract between the Government and the people of Ireland.

I remind the House of an old truth: a society grows great when old men plant trees in the shade they will never sit in. The question before us is simple: what do we want to be remembered for - a generation that accelerated a solution or prolonged the suffering of Irish people? I commend the motion to the House.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I read the Department's amendment this morning. There is nothing constructive about it. It is an absolute embarrassment because of what it says not just to Deputies in this Chamber but to the people experiencing the hard edge of the Government's failed housing policies, which is that nothing will change. It is more of the same failed policies into the future. Yesterday, the housing committee had a session on homelessness. Niall Muldoon, the Ombudsman for Children, spoke clearly about the catastrophic impact of homelessness on children. He expressed his office's exasperation at the failure of the Government to respond to the many constructive proposals his organisation and others have made. He also spoke about how this Government is continuously failing children. On Friday, we will have the latest homeless figures. I suspect once again that failure will be writ large. In the newspapers today, DNG reports the average price of a second-hand home in Dublin is now €600,000. We also read that the promised revised housing plan is delayed; what a surprise. That means local authorities still have not been given their revised housing targets and therefore cannot commence the process of considering the rezoning of land, nor have they be given revised social and affordable housing targets because six months in, this Government has not been able to agree them. The Department is slowing down approvals for much-needed social and affordable housing, collapsing questionable public-private partnerships. I have to laugh when I hear the Minister of State tell us the rural planning guidelines are under consideration. They were completed two years ago. The Minister of State's party and Fianna Fáil do not have the courage to publish them, put them out for public consultation and let us get on with providing clarity for people who want and need to live in rural Ireland. We have a Government with no urgency or ambition, which repeatedly says nobody on the Opposition side of the House has any alternative. I have one, a report commissioned by the Government, with 250 pages of alternatives, which it has ignored and thrown in the bin. I have another proposal from Sinn Féin, almost 200 pages of alternative housing policy, and other Members have provided others. There are plenty of alternatives but not the political will to accept the Government's problem is the policies it is implementing and the consequences for real people. Until the Government accepts the depth of its own policy failures, things will continue to get worse.

The Minister of State should not come in here and patronise us about being solutions-focused and constructive. For eight years I have stood here proposing alternatives, ignored by the Minister of State's predecessors and now by him. Until we see the radical reset of housing policy as outlined in the Government's commission's report, this crisis will continue to worsen.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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This Government says if the Opposition only brought forward solutions, it would listen and would implement them. What a load of hogwash. Here we have a solution and though the Minister of State might not agree with every part of it, it is a solution that is being brought forward in the same way that two weeks ago I brought a motion to the House to clear all the boarded-up vacant council houses owned by the State. The Government shot that down using the same amendment it is going to shoot this motion down with today. We have a housing emergency. People are crying out for help. The Opposition is trying to be constructive. We are trying to help the Government.

The Minister of State and I sat on the housing committee together and he listened at the same meetings. Why does he not work with us? It is because the Government is more interested in looking after speculator big landlord vulture funds while we are here fighting for the ordinary man and woman. I spoke to a couple yesterday and the woman told me she spent the weekend crying and could not go to work on Monday because she is, in her own words, "a broken woman". She cannot get on the social housing list because she is earning too much money. She is a professional and he is a tradesman. They cannot get cost rental because there is virtually none available in Cork. They cannot get affordable housing because in Cork €400,000 is being charged for that. They cannot get a mortgage to buy a house. They had a house picked out last week and they went in to put a bid on it. By the time they did, the price had gone up so high they were ruled out because they did not have the money, and she cried at the weekend. They told me they have an 11-month-old child and they will spend the summer deciding whether they are going to emigrate to Australia or Canada. That is what the Government is doing. It is driving young people out of the country because it is refusing to admit we have a housing emergency. I asked a simple question: where are the targets and where is Government's plan? The election was last year and it still does not have a plan. This is an absolute scandal. It is about time the Government did something because the people want houses and they want them now.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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This morning the DNG report tells us that in Dublin the average cost of a second hand home is €600,000. I have a very simple question for the Minister of State. Who is buying these houses? Who is earning the money to pay 600 grand for a second-hand house in Dublin? People want to live near their family, which is not an outrageous thing to want. They want to live in the city they were born in. They want to raise their family there. Does the Minister of State accept that because of his Government's policies that is becoming less and less likely, if not impossible, for anybody who is on anything close to a normal wage? Does he understand how much a person would have to earn to buy one of those houses, the average cost of which is €600,000? Would he ever reflect on that and maybe think about the young couple paying some of the highest rents in Europe trying to save for a deposit to buy a house in the place where they were born and where they want to raise their family, to buy a house near a parent, to be able to raise their family close to their own family and where they grew up and how they are seeing that get further and further away? Every year the Minister of State's party is in government, it gets further and further away from them.

In my constituency the average rent is well over €2,500. Meanwhile, the council tells tenants it has no money for the tenant in situ scheme, so people are forced into emergency accommodation. The Minister of State has neck to tell my constituents that €560,000 is affordable, which it is not. Until he accept his role in causing the housing crisis, drops his arrogance and starts listening-----

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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There is no arrogance.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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-----to the solutions put forward by the Opposition-----

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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There is no arrogance on my behalf.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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-----this crisis-----

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Stop using lines like that.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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-----will continue to get worse.

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I have no arrogance.

Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Independent Technical Group for bringing this Private Member's motion to the House. I have to ask directly whether the Minister for Housing and this Government understand why all the Opposition parties are continually putting forward motions on housing so early in this new Dáil term. Why do the Government's amendments to those many motions on housing all say the same thing? Why do the amendments to the many housing motions always deny the fact there is a housing crisis, which is in fact a housing emergency, ignore the fact housing lists are getting longer and ignore the causes that have made over 15,000 people, including thousands of children, require emergency accommodation? Why do the Government's amendments do nothing to address high rents? According to Daft last month, average rents across the State have surpassed €2,000 per month and are climbing faster than at any stage in the past 20 years, which includes the Celtic tiger period. The Government's housing policies and lack of action are causing another exodus of Irish people when they should have an opportunity to have a home, raise a family and live, work and play here. It is reasonable for them to seek opportunities to own a home elsewhere but it is utterly unreasonable for this Government to follow the same housing policies for a decade and to continue down the path that is forcing Irish people to leave this country. We are not complaining, as those on the opposite side have put it, but offering well thought-out and costed alternatives to the Government's failed housing plans. It is time for the Minister for housing and the Government to stop living with their heads in the clouds and engage with the Opposition parties to address this crisis once and for all.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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I will echo the points made by other Deputies because the Minister of State, like his ministerial colleagues, has come in here and talked about the need for the Opposition to bring forward solutions. I understand Ministers and Ministers of State need to put forward their narrative, but in truth they realise there is plenty of substance and detail. The Taoiseach loves that word; he loves to talk about "substance". Reams upon reams of potential solutions have come from this side ranging from broad, major schemes about how projects would be funded down to the technical and detailed in terms of boarded-up houses and how their repair might be properly funded. That includes how small and medium builders can be assisted with low credit finance to bring back derelict housing in our towns and cities. Very few of these solutions ever get taken on by the Government and even when they are, it is dragged kicking and screaming. It walks away from them as well. The tenant in situ scheme is the classic example. It is something that should have been done ten years ago but then where councils have gone to reach their targets, the Government has kicked the ladder away from them. I do not know what kind of confidence it is going to give to councils about reaching targets of any kind in future if they know they are going to be left on the hook. That is the reality.

The Taoiseach talks about substance, but there is plenty of substance coming from this side. What I see from the other side are solutions that are not only not working but that are making things worse. We have record homelessness, substantial increases in houses prices, substantial increases in rent and policies that are making things worse. There is a house for sale in Turner's Cross, very near where the Taoiseach is from for €385,000. It will almost certainly go for well in excess of €400,000. Just five years ago that house was €225,000 and five years before that it was €137,000. These houses are skyrocketing in price because of the Government's policies. Not only is the Government adding fuel to fire where the price of housing is concerned, it is removing protections. The fire is lit, the Government is adding petrol to it and it is removing the fireguard and the protections. It makes no sense and there is certainly no substance to it.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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Daft's latest report says the average rent in County Kerry is up between 13.2% and 31.7% depending on the type of property compared with this time last year. The Government should be hanging its head in shame when it comes to its handling of the housing crisis.

We can go back to 2011 when the Government, in effect, stopped building social housing, through to the abolition of the town councils, which certainly did not help, and then on to the present day, when all of the various Government schemes seem to be making things worse rather than better. We have had some of the steepest rises in the country in Kerry. The average increase for a four-bedroom house is the highest in the State, having risen by more than one fifth compared with this time last year. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment has skyrocketed by 31.7%, which is a price hike second only to Deputy Conor D. McGuinness's constituency in Waterford. The story is not much better for those looking to buy a house. The average price in Kerry is now more than €311,000, a 15% increase compared with last year, and 5% since the previous quarter. Compared with pre-Covid house prices have surged by 55%. It almost beggars belief. It is unsustainable. We have been clear in Sinn Féin that rising rents should not be the punishment for Government failures, and people need to see this Government fix the crisis and not come up with more excuses.

The staff in Kerry County Council put huge effort into the tenant in situ scheme. There were three cases outstanding where sales were agreed, but they cannot complete those now. Those were for exceptional cases, involving quite vulnerable people, and the rug has been pulled out from under them, some of whom have been living in those houses for approximately 12 years. We have a plan. We need more social and affordable housing. We need a plan to freeze and reduce rents now, and reverse the restrictions recently introduced in the tenant in situ scheme. I call on Kerry's four Government and Government supporting TDs to make this a priority.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Earlier in the debate, the Minister of State acknowledged that the Government is not doing enough on housing, but the truth is that it has not been doing enough for decades, and from what we see it does not intend to start now. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael benchmark themselves against their previous failures. They routinely confuse announcements with delivery and think nothing of misleading the Irish people on housing. This week in Lismore, west Waterford, a planning application for a private development of 20 much-needed homes, 16 apartments and four houses, was refused just because Irish Water cannot provide a viable connection to the town's water or wastewater systems. There is another site just behind it where 16 family homes are in jeopardy too. That is 36 homes in a small rural town in west Waterford blocked, in the Minister of State's constituency and mine, not by red tape, not by local objection, not because Government has not rolled out enough red carpet for investment funds and vultures, but by crumbling underfunded infrastructure and its failure over more than a decade to invest. In Ardmore, west Waterford, affordable housing for locals has been on the waiting list so long that people are losing hope. Every year it is delayed, people choose and vote with their feet. They go to the larger urban areas, leaving that village and many other coastal villages in County Waterford facing a demographic cliff edge. This is what the Government's failure looks like; families unable to build, councils unable to approve and rural communities being hollowed out. Irish Water told the Government 18 months ago that it needed investment to meet the Government's own housing targets, and it ignored them. Now, real deliverable housing is being blocked in towns like Lismore because the pipes and the planning system cannot cope. The Government's legacy is delay, dysfunction and zero delivery. We need a multi-annual investment plan for rural water systems, a proper rural housing strategy that includes towns and villages, and real co-ordination between planning and infrastructure. That is the only way we will get homes delivered, not with more spin or delay, and certainly not with announcements but with action.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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We are back here with the single transferable speech we can all take out. To a degree, at this stage I am boring myself. The problem is this issue is still impacting detrimentally on the people coming into all of our constituency offices and, I have no doubt, into the Minister of State's as well. We see from the new Daft.ie report that the average price for a new build in County Louth is €385,000, and the average across the board is €321,911, an increase of 14.6%. I am told, if we go back pre-Covid, that it is an increase of 51.6%. That is huge and that is phenomenal. All that Government spoke about is how it is on the side of homeownership and all the rest of it. There is no sign of delivery in that regard. We all know that we do not have to go through rent prices for any constituency. We have all put them out here and gone through Daft.ie and all the other websites. We have also dealt with our constituents who can us tell us to forget the price as they cannot actually get a rental property in any way, shape or form. The problem is that we keep coming in here and having these debates. We talk about the whole issue of high rents, high house prices and the lack of affordable housing. However, nothing that has been presented by Government is anywhere close to a solution. I welcome what the Minister of State said about the idea that we would have delivery for those people looking for cabin-type scenarios in their back gardens and whatever else. We know that is a small cohort, but we even need to see detail and speed on delivery of that. We really and truly are not seeing that delivery across the board. We all know the issues with homelessness. We know when we are dealing with local authorities that they are under far more pressure than previously and solutions that were available to them are no longer available. That even relates to what capacity was in the market. At this point we know that tenant in situ has been cut to bits. It was one of the few solutions there that was in operation.

I brought this issue up multiple times last week and I will put it back on the table. With regard to disability housing, I have been contacted, as I am sure have many others, by the likes of St. John of God's about its approved housing body, which had, let us say, three properties between counties Louth and Meath, which it was about to purchase under the capital assistance scheme. Now, they cannot because that scheme's funding has been put into the same block as tenant in situ and so on, and local authorities are saying they do not have the money and cannot do what they did previously. We are talking about a lot of residents with disabilities and challenges but what is the solution? Are we going to put them back into congregated settings? The whole idea was delivering de-congregated settings. Once again, not only was the tenant in situ solution removed, but the Government has also created a huge issue with disability housing. I expect that to be addressed, whatever about these other issues and the constant failings we are dealing with.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I thank the Independent Technical Group and Deputy Fitzmaurice for bringing forward this motion. We are six months into this new Government. There is no sight of the new housing plan until September. There are no new housing targets for local authorities. We expect that on Friday we will have record homelessness. There are no rural planning guidelines. They were apparently with the Attorney General since last summer and the average price of a second-hand home is now €600,000. I want to raise the PPP withdrawal because it is really concerning. At the time, Government was told by many people on this side of the House that this was a flawed model and poor value for money. Instead of pursuing another funding mechanism at the time for these housing projects, it drove on until the eleventh hour until a contractor was essentially appointed and then pulled it. We now have a situation where there is funding for 500 badly needed homes. That is 500 so far because we have no certainty or clarity on the further bundles. We need certainty and clarity on this. When and how will these homes be delivered? I do not understand, because bundle 3 went through gateway approval in November. Why was the value for money approved on this in November and then subsequently pulled in May? How did it go through the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform's approval process and then stop? It does not make any sense. I am concerned that the State will open itself up to litigation on this. Bundles 4, 5, 6 and 7 represent the guts of 3,000 homes. We need clarity on these further bundles. In my city of Limerick, we have a PPP under way under bundle 7 in Toppins Field, which is a mix of social and affordable housing. Will this project continue? Will this continue as a PPP? What is going to happen to the PPP model going forward? I know my own local authority has said it finds the NDFA excellent to deal with as a delivery partner.

On the substance of the motion, I welcome the majority of the contents. It is a common-sense motion. It is grounded in fact and many of its points merit serious consideration. The motion calls for a dedicated housing delivery acceleration task force.

11 o’clock

I believe the template for this already exists in the housing delivery oversight executive proposed by the Housing Commission. This would take the form of a time-limited decision-making entity within the Department of the Taoiseach underpinned by legislation to unlock the blockages in infrastructure, zoned land and planning. However, the Government's proposal of a strategic housing activation office with no statutory power will amount to little more than another quango.

Very often, the issue with the delivery of housing lies in the availability of adequate infrastructure with sufficient capacity in areas where land is zoned. I will give an example in my city of Limerick. We recently had a development of 250 homes in the suburb of Mungret. This is a partnership between the Land Development Agency and Limerick City and County Council. The development has been basically in limbo since March because of a €5 million shortfall in the delivery of infrastructure on the site. In the overall context, €5 million is a tiny sum of money and it is holding up the delivery of 250 homes.

When I raised this with the Minister by way of parliamentary question, I was told Limerick City and County Council has advised the Minister that a funding requirement has arisen in relation to enabling infrastructure at Mungret - that infrastructure being a link road and a plaza - and that Limerick City and County Council was considering the matter with a view to bringing forward a funding proposal in due course. I spoke to Limerick City and County Council and was told it submitted a business case to the Department two months ago and is still awaiting a decision - that is for €5 million. This land received planning permission in 2024 and this partnership was announced 14 months ago. The council's ask was also sent to the Taoiseach's office and the Department of public expenditure as part of the national development plan review and it still has not heard anything. This land is on the grounds of the former Mungret College, is owned by Limerick City and County Council and is part of the wider Mungret framework area. The framework aims to unlock substantial lands in public and private ownership and allow construction of residential development supported by community and employment use.

The LDA has also acquired a significant land bank throughout the city, particularly on Carey's Road. I know an ask has been submitted to the Department for €200 million in funding for infrastructure as this is a complicated brownfield site. There is potential to unlock between 2,800 and 4,000 homes.

This is a complete emergency; it is not a crisis any more. However, there is no sense of urgency within the Minister of State's Department about dealing with it as an emergency. That is why we need a unit within the Department of the Taoiseach to grab this by the horns. These issues do not involve attracting private sector investment, as we have debated back and forth in this House in recent weeks. This is pure dysfunction within the Department of housing. It is not able to throughput things and make decisions in a timely manner. This has been going on for years and is getting worse. Things are going into the Department and being stuck there for an inordinate time.

Infrastructure and the need to fund it properly are at the crux of this motion. From my and the Labour Party's point of view, Government must ensure Uisce Éireann and ESB Networks are sufficiently resourced to support delivery of the housing we need. I and my colleague, Deputy Nash, had a briefing with Uisce Éireann recently. It was sobering. Ringsend will be at capacity within two years. Greater Dublin drainage has been mired in planning difficulty since 2018. It highlights how as a country we have gone wrong in planning. We are not able to throughput big infrastructure projects in a timely manner without things being mired in judicial review and taking years upon years. Uisce Éireann has been clear with us about its ask to deal with the State's creaking water infrastructure up to 2029. I seriously urge Government to commit to fully funding Uisce Éireann's strategic funding plan and to allocate multi-annual ring-fenced funding of €2 billion for water and wastewater capacity to enable housing and growth. That is €1.7 billion plus €300 million. If we are serious about delivering housing and building up the country's capacity in terms of infrastructure, it is essential we take these measures.

I agree with much of what is proposed in the motion. There is far too much objection going on. There is far too much in terms of planning that is being decided by the courts. I sincerely hope that when Government commences fully the Planning and Development Act 2024, it will actually deal with this. This is the biggest crisis we face and it permeates everything we do in this country. I raised a Topical Issue here last night and listened to Deputy Gallagher talk about the A5 road being decided by the courts in the North. The fact of the matter is planning has become far too judicious in recent years and I hope the new Planning and Development Act will deal with this.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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The housing crisis is no longer a crisis; it is a social catastrophe. It is an emergency, as the Government has accepted. However, Government actions - cutting key housing projects, suspending funding and gutting homelessness prevention schemes - tell a very different story. Instead of rising to meet this catastrophe, the Government is failing time and time again. That is because its policies created this crisis.

We had yesterday at the housing committee the Ombudsman for Children, who highlighted again the national shame that is almost 5,000 children in homelessness. I said it was a scandal and asked if he thinks there will be a redress scheme in the future for children who have gone through emergency accommodation in this country. It is over 10,000 children. We do not even know how many children have gone through emergency accommodation. The response was that those children can never get the childhood back that they lost in emergency accommodation. Right now, there are 4,775 children growing up in emergency accommodation. I do not believe the Minister of State or anyone in the Government really accepts that is okay. It is not okay. Unfortunately, this and the previous Government's policies have normalised it and accepted it. I can make it very clear that we are not accepting it.

When we look at this housing crisis, the Government's priorities are totally out of whack. Instead of funding the tenant in situ scheme, the Government is continuing to put families up in emergency accommodation, which is costing up to €180,000 each year per family. No monetary cost can measure the impact on these children as they grow up in hotel rooms, scarred for life by living in inappropriate accommodation.

Let us go back to the basics: infrastructure, Uisce Éireann, our national water utility, our local authorities, the ESB and land aggregation. The basics required to deliver housing have not been prioritised, delivered or funded. At the same time, in a bizarre, almost GUBU moment, the Government has suspended a delivery project that was going to build almost 500 social homes, almost 200 of which are in my constituency, through public-private partnerships. They were ready to start on site in the coming weeks but the Minister has pulled the plug on them. Almost 3,000 social homes are now in jeopardy. How does the Minister of State think that makes people feel - people in Ballymun, Finglas, Whitehall, Kildare, Wicklow and Sligo, and the councillors and councils who put massive work into developing these projects?

In fact, the Government spent €8 million on developing these projects. Contractors had almost been appointed. The not-for-profit housing bodies had been brought on board. It is absolutely confounding as to how this decision was made. The Minister for housing has yet to answer as to why these projects were pulled at the last minute when they were about to deliver social housing projects. I ask the Minister of State to bring it back to Cabinet and raise this issue. How the hell were social housing projects that were about to start on site pulled at the last minute? It is beyond comprehension. We talk about incompetence. This has gone from incompetence to sabotage. That is what it feels like for the communities across Dublin and across this country who were due to get social housing built.

The flaws in the public-private partnership model have been highlighted by myself and others for years. I have researched it and written about it. It is an inflexible process. It is expensive but the Government had brought it to the end line. It should have just delivered those projects and said the State would deliver the rest of them directly. Now we have almost 3,000 social homes in complete limbo. What is going to happen? The Minister needs to intervene directly. This is an absolute scandal and it needs to be highlighted.

Not only has the Government cut these social housing building programmes, it has also gutted the tenant in situ scheme. The scheme is a vital homelessness prevention measure. At the housing committee yesterday, we heard representatives from the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive say very clearly that the cuts and changes to the tenant in situ scheme is likely to result in people made homeless this year. This is because Dublin City Council and other local authorities across the country have said they have suspended the tenant in situ scheme because of the changes brought in. They do not have sufficient funding this year. We will see families and individuals evicted from their homes where it could have been prevented. The councils could have bought the properties but we are not seeing that happen.

The Minister for housing must urgently clarify why ready to go PPP housing bundles were suspended without a backup plan; whether the funding will be restored to essential homelessness prevention tools like tenant in situ; and how the Government expects to meet its targets with no infrastructural investment set out very clearly for Uisce Éireann, the local authorities and the Land Development Agency. There is no serious plan and the funding allocated is still inadequate. The Taoiseach says in the House that we are not putting forward solutions. We have put forward solutions. The homes for Ireland State saving scheme is a way to divert €160 billion in savings into funding affordable housing. Rather than going to vulture funds, we could be doing this. We could be funding the local authorities and not-for-profit housing bodies.

The Government is creating an artificial scarcity because it is saying the State cannot do any more. There are billions sitting in surplus. Why are we not allocating that to housing? The Government says no, the private sector has do it. The Government could hire the builders to build it, develop the capacity of local authorities and do it. We have the money to do it.

I thank the Deputies for bringing forward the motion today. We tabled an amendment in that we believe that local authorities should be giving the funding rather than putting in penal measures. We have seen that in other situations and it has not worked. Broadly, we absolutely agree that this is an emergency and we need a change.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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This motion comes at a time of deep concern for the people of Ireland but particularly for my constituency of Dublin South Central. Our capital city is at breaking point. The housing crisis we are living in is dire. Every single clinic I have is jammed with people who are in desperate situations. They are coming to the clinic, the phone never stops ringing and the emails are full. When we reach this point, what else needs to happen for genuine action to follow? As a politician and a person who lives in my constituency, I cannot understand why things do not move. I am here seven months now. Things do not move. Houses and apartments do not seem to get built. There is delay after delay. My constituency has five regeneration projects. They have all been delayed for decades. What gets me is the fact we have these wonderful social homes, we have homes like the Oliver Bond flats that were beautifully built and yet they are falling apart because we do not maintain them. This the problem I have. It is bad from an environmental point of view as well. Letting everything disintegrate so that people are living in mouldy homes, drafty homes and homes not fit for habitation by a human is allowed in our social homes. Why do we not maintain them? Other countries have social homes and they maintain them. The Ballymun flats were built in the 1960s, for example. They were maintained and were built in a model based on a German example. When I go to Germany to visit my family, those homes are still fine. Why can we not have that here? We do not maintain them.

To reiterate what my colleague said, children growing up in the homes we are providing for them as a State is a disgrace, if they even have a home. Look at the number of children who are growing up in homelessness in this country. There is then hidden homelessness. Mothers contact me saying my child is doing the leaving cert and we are going from couch to couch. How are they able to do State exams? The State exams are over now but their search for homes and for somewhere to live is not over. We will then have the student accommodation problem in the summer when people will go to third level and yet we have no solutions there. It is like we are the only country in the world who has ever had a housing situation and we cannot learn from other countries. As you might hear this morning, I am a little bit at my wits' end because my inbox is just so full and I do not know what to do. I do not know whether the Government knows what to do. I do not have trust in the situation or trust that there is a proper plan in place. I would love to see a proper plan in place.

As my colleague said, we have put forward solutions. We have a housing expert here but no one is listening. I implore the Minister to please do something concrete and do it fast.

Charles Ward (Donegal, 100% Redress Party)
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I support this motion that calls to declare a national housing and infrastructure emergency and introduce time-bound emergency legislation that would enable local authorities and developers to accelerate the delivery of housing on already zoned, infrastructure-ready land. As I said last week, we cannot take the necessary steps to properly address this crisis until we call it what it is: a national emergency. The failure of the Government and previous Governments to deliver on housing is a failure of public policy. So many young people in my constituency of Donegal face an impossible situation as house prices soar and rents are unaffordable and unavailable. It is a disgrace they are unable to afford to live in the very towns and communities they grew up in.

Instead, they are forced to emigrate in the hope of a better life, opportunities and a bit of independence. Young people cannot be expected to live in their families homes well into adulthood. It is stunning that the independence of our young people is being severely damaged, along with family relationships. The Government's housing policy is driving young people away and is setting up a future generation for complete failure. We have an ageing population and we are doing absolutely nothing to actively address this. The construction of new homes in Donegal has nearly come to a standstill. On top of this, we are grappling with a defective concrete crisis.

Last year, only 382 new builds were completed in Donegal. That is nowhere near what is needed. We need to building 1,400 homes a year over the next ten to 15 years to keep on top of the defective concrete crisis alone. On top of this, we need to be building 1,200 new homes a year just to sustain the current population in Donegal. That does not account for population growth over the next number of years. Effectively, we need to be building 2,600 homes a year in the north west. We need targeted measures to introduce this to meet the housing demand. We cannot continue to allow this crisis to wreak havoc on the county. The failure to enforce regulation means there is no guarantee that new builds or rebuilt homes are free from defective materials, allowing the vicious cycle to continue and leaving homeowners vulnerable to further trauma in the future. I know for a fact that today, there are houses in Donegal being built with defective concrete. We keep on continuing with this madness.

We are supposed to be moving on from this crisis but nothing has changed and no lessons have been learned. We are dragged back into this crisis time and again. We are simply asking to move on. We are losing all hope of ever seeing an end to this. Impacted homeowners trust in the system and trust in the Government to do the right thing but this has been completely broken over the years. Families are pushed to the brink emotionally, mentally and financially as they navigate through a system that seems destined to fail them. The failure is not just about bricks and mortar; it is an erosion of trust over the years. It has been happening for almost 15 years now. It is an erosion of dignity, fundamental rights and a safe place to call home.

We all deserve a place to call home and to have a sense of security, but the sense of security is being stripped away from the people of Donegal. This is cruel and unfair. There need to be accountability, transparency and immediate action. People are seeking to move on with and enjoy their lives and to be rid of the burden of defective concrete. It is exhausting for them to live this crisis 24-7, 365 days per year, year in, year out.

Recent studies show the rates of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal ideation among people living in defective homes are comparable with those among disaster-stricken and displaced populations. This is incredibly concerning and warrants an emergency response in Donegal. It is time for the Government to wake up and take drastic action to allow us to continue to go on with our lives and help the people of Donegal.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I want to speak in favour of this motion although I have concerns about parts of it. Overall, I agree with it and the focus it puts on the absence of infrastructure. I will not support the narrative on this side of the House to the effect that objections are causing the planning problems. That is a false, self-serving narrative. My office has just submitted a question to confirm the number of vacancies in the planning system. At any given time, I am told there are 500. I tried my best to elicit a response from the Department of housing lately but failed. However, it confirmed the number was around 500. We should not scapegoat objectors. I do not know any objectors; I know concerned residents and citizens who break their hearts to put in submissions because they are concerned.

In Galway, I have fought for student accommodation repeatedly; however, it is completely developer led and popping up where developers decide it will make the best profit, leaving residents in various areas throughout the city in a most difficult position. Therefore, I will not support the self-serving narrative.

If we used the number of words we use here in the Dáil, I am sure we could build quite an amount of housing. To stop all the talk, the Government commissioned a Housing Commission report. It reported last May, over a year ago, and had 83 recommendations. What jumped out for me was the statement that there has been systemic failure and that we need a radical reset and to change our policy completely. What the Government did was run with one aspect of that, in relation to rent pressure zones. The commission specifically stated the Government should not run with one recommendation and that all must be taken on board for a radical reset, a completely different vision.

There is one little hope for Galway. We are now learning that in the midst of an absolutely dreadful housing crisis there, 75% of the houses are being built directly. That 75% of projected delivery is through own builds is very positive. I agree with that. It is the one little piece of hope from the forum, which has been sitting for way too long without publishing a comprehensive report on the housing crisis in Galway.

It has been mentioned already that the Ombudsman for Children, Dr. Niall Muldoon, has highlighted the catastrophic consequences of homelessness for children. Teachers in Dublin, some in my own family, state children are coming from different homelessness units to school and are expected to compete with, and be on the same level as, other children. All that is increasing is the number of homelessness organisations. We have gone from the Peter McVerry Trust to other organisations, each filling a void that the Government should be filling to prevent homelessness.

On the matter of the Peter McVerry Trust, which is before the Committee of Public Accounts, that entity should never have been allowed to develop in the manner it did, with a lack of oversight. I am not casting any aspersions on the tremendous work done, but it should have been left for those who need a wraparound service and who are homeless for many reasons. Instead, the trust went off in all sorts of different directions without any monitoring. It bought a hotel, which has been empty since 2022. There are many other problems besides.

Let us consider what the Housing Commission stated. It stated we should assess housing need in Ireland on the basis of what is needed for a well-functioning society. That is the kernel for me. It has been continuously ignored by every Government, which puts an emphasis on the view that the market will provide, as if a home were not the most essential thing one could have for security of tenure and to allow people to raise families and participate in society. Every single week people are worrying about security of tenure and where they are going to end up. Having to move because of a lack of security means changes of school and of all one’s conditions.

Imagine that we needed a housing commission to tell us how essential a home is and to put the emphasis on a well-functioning society and the number of houses we need for that. The Housing Commission specifically asked us not to conflate this with market demand or construction capacity, and to consider housing in a completely different way. It also stated social housing and cost-rental housing should comprise at least 20% of the overall target set by the Government. Of course, that is not happening at all. The chair was in the city council, as was I. I was on the council for 17 years. Unfortunately, I watched the local authority being starved of funds and functions and forced into undesirable circumstances. After the crash, the Government, with all its accounting tricks and off-balance-sheet accounting, introduced the housing assistance payment. This has been an absolute disaster, costing over half a billion euro per year, or nearly a billion euro with the cost of the other schemes. The Housing Commission is saying we should put it back to what it should be, involving a short term arrangement, and build local authority housing. However, we cannot do that because of the blame game, with the local authority saying it does not have enough money and the Department saying it has loads of money. Despite what is said, we have a crisis.

To me, part of the solution – perhaps I am too simple to see the solution but I have a lot of experience based on what I have watched – is to have nothing but public housing on public land. There should not be premium housing or any other type on public land. This is what the task force in Galway, which has now sat since 2019, should be ensuring.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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I support this motion. How many more motions and debates are we going to have to get some realism and reality applied to the disastrous situation in which we find ourselves with regard to housing? It is organised mayhem. Every speaker – I had a chat last night with my colleague in south Tipperary – states housing is the number one issue. Our clinics are bogged down and there is so little we can do. There is so little output. In this regard, consider the whole HAP disaster. Billions of euro have been spent on it that should have been spent on public housing. We lost our way here as well.

During the War of Independence, the Custom House was attacked. I do not want anyone to be injured now but the Custom House has to be dismantled. The deep rot and systematic failures in it are intolerable at this stage. What kind of electoral democracy have we such that we cannot have Ministers who will challenge this and the Secretaries General – I have nothing against any of them personally – in their fiefdoms?

I have skin in the game because I was chair of a voluntary housing association that built 17 houses – 14 and three. I saw all the delays, the supplication and the six different departments all over the country that just pass paper around, keeping people in jobs doing paperwork. If we want to build three or four local authority houses, we have to get a design team and consultants. Why can we not have but one scheme and just adapt for each site? It is a pure racket. This is going on and on and there is no sign of it changing.

We have had more housing Ministers since I came in here than we have had hot dinners. They all do their best but there is utter failure. Was it Einstein who said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting to get a different result? That is what is happening here. We have a nice new acronym for the role of the new fellow brought in to move mountains – another job with a brass plate and a big office and a team of people under him, but doing nothing. Let us give the local authorities the powers to build.

We had a borough district council in Clonmel that was abolished by Fine Gael under that wasteful plan it had for putting people first. It put people last. We had in the past a team, whom I salute, of builders and maintenance men, and the stock was being maintained. Now I believe there is just one person in the whole borough of Clonmel. That is not good enough.

Dublin was alluded to. Flats like those in Ballymun were built in Germany but the latter are in pristine condition. Some of ours are demolished or falling down. Properties are not being maintained and people are not encouraged to have pride in their houses.

The housing of the wonderful Caisleán Nua Voluntary Housing Association, with which I am still involved – I spoke to the chairman on the phone about something – is in pristine condition.

The residents are very happy. There are little niggly bits and there always will be. It is one of the most joyous things I was ever involved in.

We need to support the small voluntary housing associations, not the likes of the Peter McVerry Trust and many more housing agencies, which have turned into huge conglomerates. I was on the national body for a number of years so I know. They took control of that, with their claws around it, and squeezed out the ordinary, local voluntary organisations, which is not acceptable. We need a massive rethink. Dismantle the Custom House and make it into a homelessness shelter or something. Get the mandarins out of there and get some common sense in there. Builders ring me every day of the week about Irish Water and An Bord Pleanála. I got a call last night about a Bord Pleanála inspector who did a report using ChatGPT. Imagine. Where are we going to end up next? Now we have changed the name. I love the Gaeilge, like the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, Deputy Mairéad Farrell, but changing the name is not good enough when there is systemic rot in those organisations, in the Custom House and in An Bord Pleanála.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I thank Deputy Michael Collins and his group for tabling this motion and giving us all an opportunity to talk about housing and discuss it as much as we can to see if we can help. This is one of many motions, Bills and whatever trying to address housing, but we really need to get down to work and see after the people to ensure that everyone has a home. The answer has to be to build more local authority houses at a standard size. We should not try to stop people from doing Airbnb. I do not believe that we will achieve or get any house back from Airbnb because the first thing we have to realise is that anyone who has sat doing Airbnb for more than seven years has planning for that by default and does not have to go for planning. Even the ones who have been at it for three or four years do not intend to give back their houses for long-term letting.

Vacant houses are another way we could achieve housing. Incentivise the owners to rent them out. There are so many vacant houses everywhere. Do something like giving householders who house Ukrainian refugees €600 tax-free, which was previously €800. That is being paid by the State. The people who I envisage would be renting and paying for the houses themselves and the landlord could get €600 tax-free. That is a laudable way to try to get people to rent out their vacant properties.

Planning should be granted to all those who want to build a house for themselves on sites. We have many problems in Kerry with the strict urban generated pressure rule, where people cannot access national primary or national secondary routes because of blockages by the Department, even though there is access there already. Reduce the VAT on building supplies for new houses and repairing vacant properties. Land that is serviced is another problem that is manifesting itself now. Where you have people who want to zone their lands, they are afraid to do so in the Killarney area, where the plan is being developed at present. They are afraid to zone their lands because they would be liable for the residential zoned land tax. That is unfair because they do not know who, if anyone, will buy their site or the place they want to sell, and they will be landed with a 10% tax every year until the value of the property is gone.

I am asking, where land is serviced with sewers, water and the ESB, that people should be able to put in a planning application on that basis to see if it jumps the hurdle and meets the requirements of the local authority's planning section rather than having it zoned. Zoning is complicated and is made more complicated by the residential zoned land tax. It will hurt many people and it will hurt our achievements in building houses because if it is not zoned, you cannot build in it, and if people zone it and do not get someone to purchase it, they are taxed. Builders are having serious problems in accessing money to build the houses. They must build them to a turnkey state and carry the cost of building the house from day one until the day it is finished. That is not fair either because there have been staged payments before and that is not allowed or happening any more, except for voluntary housing bodies. How is it working for one section and not for people who want to build a few houses? We always had builders close by around us, building 17, 18 or maybe 20 houses a year in different towns and villages. That is not happening anymore because builders cannot get off the ground. They have to carry the total cost of building the house themselves. That is wrong as well and the banks are putting in so many restrictions.

We need, at secondary school level, to try to encourage youngsters, both boys and girls, to go into the trades. It is grand to say to go to college and get an education but we need people to work on the ground. We need electricians, blocklayers, plasterers and carpenters. We need some incentive or advice for the youngsters leaving secondary school that there is work for them and to go into those trades, do those apprenticeships and get the experiences that they need to go into building houses because if we do not have builders, we will not have houses and it is looking that way. In our neck of the woods, a few older fellows are still at it and we do not seem to have enough young builders coming on stream.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank colleagues for all their important contributions here today. I echo the comments made by the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, earlier and reassert this Government's commitment and determination to tackle the challenges in housing. Housing is a cross-sectoral challenge that has a real impact on people's lives. Our goal remains a housing system that serves the needs of our people. While there is still much to do, the Opposition motion inputs here today do not fairly represent the efforts and progress made to date. The motion claims that the Government is not treating housing with the urgency that it deserves, but we have laid a strong and secure foundation that will allow us to continue to ramp up delivery for the coming years. The measures introduced under Housing for All helped to establish a strong platform to scale up housing delivery further in the short term and secure a sustainable level of future supply that will help us to meet unmet and emerging demand.

At the same time, we fully acknowledge that housing remains an enormous challenge. The number of new homes coming on stream each year remains far short of where it needs to be. The Government has committed to delivering 300,000 new homes by 2030, targeting at least 60,000 homes annually by the end of that period. To this end, the programme for Government commits to a new national housing plan to build on the success of Housing for All. The plan will incorporate pragmatic actions to boost housing activity in the short term as well as longer term actions that will implement systemic change and help to achieve and sustain the levels of supply needed in the long term.

There is no one single policy approach, decision or silver bullet that will solve the housing challenges that we face. We must therefore consider every means available. The Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, has set out the progress we have made under Housing for All, including those relating to social and affordable housing delivery, and some of the key changes that we have introduced, particularly with regard to planning reform and our plans to scale up the supply of housing. The simple fact is that the largest social and affordable housing programme in the history of the State has been rolled out under Housing for All. This is demonstrated by our record level of investment being provided for the delivery of housing in 2025, with overall capital funding of almost €6.8 billion now available. The capital provision for 2025 is supplemented by a further €1.65 billion in current funding to address housing need.

Despite this undoubted progress, we must acknowledge that housing remains an enormous challenge and that the number of new homes coming on stream each year is far short of where it needs to be.

The number of homes coming on stream each year is far short of where it needs to be.

In the programme for Government, the Government has committed to delivering more homes. The new targets are ambitious but provide a credible pathway to delivering the scale of housing needed. Our immediate focus must be on achieving these targets. Key to achieving them will the delivery of new apartment developments in our cities and urban quarters. Much of the investment needed for such developments must come through the private sector, financed through appropriate sources of private capital, much of which will come from international sources. This capital is critical in apartment delivery, particularly for the private rental sector.

The Independent Ireland motion calls for increased capacity of critical infrastructure required for the delivery of housing. The Government is in fact investing record levels of capital funding in critical infrastructure, including in the areas of water and energy and will continue to do so under the national development plan for the period 2025 to 2035, to be finalised by July of this year. The Government is therefore committed to delivering on the key objectives for infrastructure to support the delivery of the homes needed.

Uisce Éireann has ramped up capital delivery for water services and infrastructure from €300 million in 2014 to roughly €1.3 billion in 2024. For 2025, the Exchequer will provide more than €2.2 billion in funding to Uisce Éireann. The programme for Government commits to investing additional capital in Uisce Éireann under the revised national development plan to support our new housing targets. In response to increased demand for energy, the systems operators, ESB Networks and EirGrid, prepared business plans that propose to significantly increase investment in the electricity grid for the period of 2026 to 2030. While the Government looks forward to the conclusion of the sixth price review by the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities, which will provide a clear framework for investment in the electricity grid, it will support operators in building capacity and a more reliable and decarbonised energy system.

The Government also agreed to an ambitious expansion to the remit of the Land Development Agency to support the delivery of housing, including unlocking key strategic public lands for urban brownfield delivery through infrastructure investment and to support local authorities, the housing activation office and the Department in master planning and infrastructure provision in new towns and districts.

Regarding calls for the Government to build capacity of the construction sector, I argue a concerted effort is already under way. For example, budget 2025 has seen the single largest investment of core apprenticeship funding since the formation of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in 2020 and an increase of 83%. This investment will support the continued growth of apprenticeship training capacity, with 6,319 registering to join construction-related programmes in 2024, a rise from 4,463 in 2019. The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science works with sectoral partners such as SOLAS, the National Construction Training Centre, Skillnet Ireland and education and training boards to increase skill supply through the existing network of skills provision across the tertiary system. I reiterate the Government is committed to scaling up capacity to deliver the homes we need and to facilitate this through appropriate Government support by increasing critical infrastructure capacity including electricity and water infrastructure.

I am also establishing housing activation office in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to identify and address barriers in the delivery of public infrastructure projects needed to enable housing development at local level through the alignment of funding and co-ordination of infrastructure providers. We will continue to do everything in our power to increase the capacity of critical infrastructure needed to support housing delivery and in turn to increase housing supply for now and generations to come.

I will conclude by advising that a new national housing plan to follow Housing for All will be underpinned by the required funding in the national development plan. The timing of the publication of the new panel will be aligned with the outcome of the NDP review process currently being undertaken. This plan will focus on the delivery of the new infrastructure and activation of land security finance as well as addressing viability challenges and boosting the capacity of the construction sector. We are not waiting for the plan. We have already made significant announcements over the past couple of months and will make more significant announcements over the coming weeks.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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I thank the speakers who spoke in support of this motion. However, I saw the reply from the Minister and the 28 proposals amending what we proposed. They are a copy and paste. That does not give me any encouragement that the Minister is listening. What does Independent Ireland have that the Government and Department do not have? We have common sense. The Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, said on the floor of the House last week that the majority of common sense is coming from this corner. Why is that? Why do we know about delivery? Deputy Michael Collins has a business background; he is self-employed. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice is a business person. Deputy Ken O'Flynn and myself are business people all our lives and we are still in business. Why? We are accountable and deliver for our businesses to make sure that not only can we help ourselves through our businesses, but we can help the people who work for and with us on delivery. That is what Independent Ireland stands for and that is the difference between us and the Government.

It is all about departments. The Government puts paperwork, legislation and guidelines in the way of delivery. We are talking about €2.2 billion going to Irish Water or Uisce Éireann, or whatever you want to call it these days. There is no accountability or delivery. I have given the Minister solutions as to how we can help.

I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice for putting this Private Members' motion together, with the help of John Campbell, Mark Nolan and the rest of our group. Why did we do it? We are passionate about delivery. We want to help the Government but it comes in here with proposals, which are a copy and paste, to business people who know how to deliver.

The Government could use our experience to help to deliver houses for people who need them. There is a simple solution: all public housing should be under one plan and materials should be bought in bulk, which is cheaper. When you bulk buy anything, it is cheaper. It should be one-size-fits-all. All houses should look the same - end of story. If someone wants to paint their house a different colour, that is fine. A standard size house would mean delivery would be cheaper and we could deliver faster as the Government would be bulk buying. That is one solution.

On sewerage infrastructure capacity, I have given the Minister the solution. It is to remove the water from the sewerage systems and give more capacity back to the units, which at the moment the Government cannot help. I am talking about existing systems that are at maximum capacity that the Government is not allowing planning permission for. If it removed and separated some of the water, we could build more houses at the same capacity on the same systems that are there. All some other systems need is an extra tank. An extra tank would mean extra capacity, which would allow the cycle to go over a longer term before it is exported back into the waterways. That is another solution.

Irish Water is not giving the Government solutions. Why? It has multi-million euro contracts. It says what needs to be invested in. There are people in here who have been involved in the construction of pipework and would give their experience for free. We can help deliver this for free. Yet the Minister looks at these departments, which are going around in circles.

I will give one example of Pallaskenry. There were 28 emails and 20-odd phone calls between the council and departments. They went around in circles in order to get Irish Water to return to me an A4 sheet of paper that had gone out of date and that would allow a person to build 30 houses that would help the Government’s delivery of houses. It took them eight weeks. It says online that it has a green flag. That system was developer-built. It had a capacity for more than 300 houses. In that area, only 80 houses have been built since that system went in. It took me eight weeks to get a letter from Irish Water, even though online it says it has a green flag, to deliver 30 houses for the Minister and the people of Limerick. The Minister says Uisce Éireann is accountable but it is not. I spoke to more people in departments who did not know where Limerick or Pallaskenry were. I had to get onto this department and that department. That means administration eats up a lot of the money that should go to delivery.

Why does the Minister not take up Independent Ireland’s offer to help him? It is in this Private Members' motion. Yet all the Minister came back with were 28 amending proposals - a copy and paste of other stuff. We are not here to fight the Minister; we are here to help him with the experience we have.

Planning permission fees have been reintroduced even though they were scrapped to allow for inflation costs. Everyone who is building now has to pay planning permission fees.

There is now a VAT rate of 23%. Some 20% of a mortgage for a house is VAT; it is tax. People pay tax when they are working so they can afford a mortgage. They pay a planning permission fee to build their own houses, if they are in a position to do so. Then they pay VAT to the Government, which ends up being 20% of their mortgage. For a house costing €400,000 or €500,000, €100,000 in tax is being paid. Independent Ireland has given the incentives to the Minister. They come from the experience of businesspeople who know what they are doing and who are here for the betterment of the people of Ireland. They are here to deliver for, and ensure accountability for, the people of Ireland. They want to make sure taxpayers' money is invested in infrastructure that is delivered on budget and on time. That is what we stand for in Independent Ireland. That is what we came together for in Independent Ireland. I want the Minister to take up the offer, and I have offered it more than once. Take up Independent Ireland's offer. Let us help to deliver houses.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank Mark Nolan and John Campbell for helping us out. I thank each of the speakers, whether they spoke for or against the motion. I thank them for spending the time. I will address a few of the issues raised by the Minister. Three years ago I came into the Dáil and today RTÉ is reporting that we are now in trouble. To build a house, a site has to be dug out. Stone and concrete are needed. It is damning that three years after I raised it in the Dáil, we now face this. It was raised with the then Minister of State, Damien English, a few years ago that quarries are being closed left, right and centre as a result of legislation. We are heading for a cartel of two or three quarries. Anyone who knows the building game knows that is happening. That is the first stage of building a house.

The Minister said there is not one magic bullet and he is correct. I have given him 23 magic bullets that will help solve this situation.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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Hear, hear.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The Minister spoke about different reports and bodies being set up and whatever. The bottom line is that if people do their job and are given the utilities, instruments and simplifications, everyone could do their jobs without putting layers upon layers. All we are doing, if we get a housing tsar or whatever, is getting another person to blame. We will say they should have done their job. At the end of the day, if everyone who is appointed, whether in councils, in planning and up the ladder to Secretary General, does their job, we would not need more layers. What we need to do is simplify things. I have simplified the croí cónaithe scheme. I have simplified it in all of the aspects of housing because we spoke to the people who are building the houses, the people on the ground. They are the ones who see the problems. That choice is the Minister's. I worry that if the same piano is playing, we will get the same tune. People in the different Departments are not used to change. They are not used to making decisions to change something if it is not working and of going a different way. Someone has to put the boot in and change the tune. If that does not happen, we will be in the same situation next year and the year after.

The quarries keep closing. There is no quarry open from Galway city to Connemara, and the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach can correct me if I am wrong. Those are the facts. Things are being brought 50 to 80 miles now because of legislation. Was anything done over past three years? Has the Department done anything? No. If the same thing continues in housing, the Minister will get the blame as will the next one. The unfortunate part of this is that more of our kids will have emigrated even though they have jobs, because at a cost of €600,000, they cannot afford a house. One would want to have a super duper job to be able to afford it and that is for a second hand house. If we do not concentrate on solving this problem, those kids will keep on emigrating. Children around the country do not have a roof over their heads tonight and the figures due to come out on Friday will be higher. It is up to us, as elected representatives, to represent the people and not to keep listening to the people who have gotten it wrong for the past ten years.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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In accordance with Standing Order 85(2), the division is postponed until the weekly division time this evening.