It behoves Deputy Ó Broin to publish his housing plan once and for all and to back it up with real statistics. We will continue to build real homes.

Is Sinn Féin not going to publish its own?

I join in the welcome to the families here today. I join with the Taoiseach, the Government and all of us who are privileged enough to sit in the House in issuing a full and unreserved State apology. It is right and fitting for this Chamber to offer, however late in the day, whatever solace we can. Like so many others, I remember that day. I was only six years old at the time but had three teenage sisters. In north Dublin, the Stardust was one of the main places to go. I can still remember not fully understanding a…

I welcome and congratulate the Minister of State, Alan Dillon, on his appointment to the Department. Alan has a specific and detailed interest in housing, and I look forward to working with him, as I am sure colleagues across the House do. I thank Deputy Ó Broin for the question. As he knows, under Housing for All, which is the plan that we have actually published, that is fully funded and that is working and taking hold right across the country, we have targeted 54,000 affordable homes to be delivered by local aut…

I am very happy to stand over our plan, its delivery and its record. That stands in sharp contrast to Sinn Féin's lack of a plan and its lack of alternatives in this space. It has never produced or costed a housing plan. Take the vacant property grant. The Deputy says he is not opposed to it, but he allocated no moneys to it whatsoever in the Sinn Féin alternative budget. To use an example of that, the figures are 7,362 applications to that scheme, 4,253 applications approved and up to €70,000 in grants. If you mee…

I am not misrepresenting anything. What I am doing is presenting real progress. We had no affordable homes here. First-time buyers are buying at a rate we have not seen since 2006. I and this Government believe in home ownership; you do not.

But you actually do not, Eoin.

A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I did not interrupt once.

It might be easier. Take the local authority affordable purchase scheme. More than 4,000 affordable homes have been approved under that scheme already. Sixteen hundred-----

Sixteen hundred. To give you an example, Eoin, just in the past few weeks, 1,243 affordable purchase homes were advertised in Carlow, Cork city and county, Fingal, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Louth, Meath, Limerick, South Dublin - your own area, Waterford, Westmeath and Wicklow. It is taking hold and it does take time to build capacity.

People can clearly see-----

-----delivery on cost rental, for which we legislated and tenants are in place now.

If I could say, a Leas Cheann Comhairle, this is a tactic that Deputy Ó Broin regularly uses to try to talk me down. He will not.

He can try-----

He can try to deny progress-----

Not only does he deny progress, he blocks progress.

There are no measures whatsoever from Sinn Féin, no plan and no money.

It remains the single most important challenge we face, no less so for those families and individuals who find themselves in emergency accommodation. Supporting those individuals and families is a priority. Critical to that support is enabling households to exit homelessness and increasing housing supply. Almost 12,000 new social homes were delivered last year, a massive increase in social housing delivery. That was through Bills, acquisition and leasing, including 8,110 new-build social homes last year. By any fai…

I put it to the Deputy that many others would be in social homes right now if his party and colleagues had not continually objected to housing right across the country. The Deputy shares responsibility for that with Sinn Féin Deputies and councillors across the country. To be specific on exits, since 2022, some 5,524 adults were assisted to exit local authority emergency accommodation and 6,802 adults were prevented from becoming homeless. There are many reasons that the numbers in homelessness have increased. It i…

Right now, as I speak, approximately 26,000 social homes are at various different stages of construction in the pipeline. That is because the State, through Housing for All, has a multi-annual, fully funded plan that will invest €5 billion in housing this year. Deputy Ó Broin likes to play ducks and drakes with facts. He knows that the reason social housing waiting lists have gone up slightly is that we broadened the eligibility criteria and increased the income bands to allow more people to apply for social homes,…