Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is the Government's record, yet Senator Casey thinks he can come in here and give us a lecture on housing. Let me remind him also that the Government's target of building 12,600 social and affordable houses this year is not going to be hit. The Minister admitted last week that the figure will be 30% off that target. The Government cannot even deliver the pledges it has made, which are clearly not good enough. I make no apologies for Sinn Féin saying we will deliver 20,000 social and affordable houses.

The Government's think tank, the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, told Ministers last year that the Government is spending exactly half what it is needed on social and affordable housing. That is where the problem lies. Fine Gael tends to talk about housing like it is some kind of natural disaster saying. It says that what has happened is terrible. The current situation is all the result of Government policies. I remind colleagues that this is the seventh budget shared between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Fundamentally, they have failed year after year and that is why homelessness figures have hit a new record level again. That is their record and it is what they must deal with.

In the time remaining to me, I will deal with the income tax issue because I have a problem with the measure on income tax. It will cost taxpayers more than €500 million, yet three in four earners will not benefit from the measure at all. What message does that send to lower paid workers like a staff teacher or nurse who earns €35,000, for example? It is fundamentally unfair that three out of four workers will not benefit from this huge tax change. Someone who earns €135,000 will benefit by €830 but someone who earns €35,000 will benefit by €190. Whose side is the Government on in terms of looking after ordinary workers? Those figures make it very clear and very stark.