John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Much of the debate has focused on sections 14 and 15 of the Bill and it has turned into a housing discussion so I felt it necessary to comment on the Bill. I echo much of what Senator Mullen said. We are in a housing crisis and, in such a crisis, one must use every tool at one's disposal to tackle the problem. My party and the Government is all about delivery over ideology. We believe we can deliver houses by any mechanism possible, be that councils, approved housing bodies, the Land Development Agency, public-private partnerships, private builders or leases.

I guarantee Senator Gavan that any individual or family that has got a leased property in recent years is not getting hung up on the ideological debate about this. They are happy to be out of hotel or emergency accommodation. That is what the Government is doing in delivering units for families and individuals to live in. Leases have a part to play in that.

I will leave some important facts on the record of the House. I invite the media to scrutinise the Sinn Féin policy on housing. It promises to deliver 100,000 social and affordable units over a 15-year period. On page 5 of that document, it states that, in the period 2016 to 2021, Sinn Féin would deliver 36,500 social and affordable homes. According to the CSO, this Government has delivered 39,524 houses in the past four years, without taking account of the 2021 figures. Some of those are leases, but Senator Gavan should ask any of the individuals or families in those homes and no longer in hotel accommodation whether they care for the ideological debate in this Chamber.