I note in Deputy Doherty's response that he did not answer any questions or put forward any alternatives.

There is no Sinn Féin housing policy. It does not exist. There is no question that there remain very significant challenges. We have an overall target this year to deliver 29,000 new homes and we intend to do that. We delivered affordable homes in the first year of Housing for All for the first time in a generation. Speaking of photo opportunities, very recently in Deputy Louise O'Reilly's constituency, we turned the sod on 1,200 new homes in Balmoston. This is one of the biggest and most significant sites in the c…

The delivery figures show that.

Not everybody is feeling it. People watching will see that-----

In fairness, people watching will see that all that Sinn Féin has called for, particularly for first-time buyers, is the removal of all the supports available, including the help-to-buy scheme, the first home scheme and the vacancy grant. Sinn Féin would get rid of them all.

I thank the Deputy for her questions and the points she has made. I reject outright that Housing for All is failing. It is not. I have responded to some of the charges from the Deputy opposite, which, to be fair, were put in a less constructive way than those Deputy Bacik put. It is all I would expect from Deputy Doherty on most Thursdays in the House.

Leaving that aside for the moment, there are very serious issues here, particularly around homelessness. The number one priority are the people who do not have a home. We need to make sure there is secure accommodation for them and we can have more people exit homelessness into permanent social homes. That is why the focus has been on delivering more new social homes. Last year, we built more new social homes than we have done in 50 years and we will do more this year. It is important that we do that. Deputy Bacik'…

The Labour Party voted against the Bill.

I stand to be corrected.

If we are to deal with the facts, we built just short of 30,000 new homes last year, the first full year of Housing for All. That was more than the Labour Party did in the five years that it was in government between 2011 and 2016.

Sorry, Brendan, but if we look at the last time we had a Labour Party Minister for housing, investment in housing, for everything, was about €400 million. That was in 2015.

It is 11 times that now. We are delivering investment of €4.5 billion this year.

Deputy Howlin, who has been here a long time, obviously does not like hearing the facts but that is the reality.

Deputy Bacik said the plan lacks ambition. It does not. I am always open to constructive points and criticism. Indeed, I have found the Labour Party to be constructive in the main but not its idea that we can simply increase capital investment by a further €1 billion without looking at the capacity to deliver the houses. We need to build up capacity in the sector too. That is what we are doing, in particular on social and affordable housing. It is a question of catching up because of the many years of under-deliver…

We will double-check that. Let me address the cheap remark about the three leaders being away. In fairness, it is a UN General Assembly. There is a WHO summit on pandemic preparation.

Anyone in government who travels and is away is working, and the Deputy knows that. Hers was a pretty cheap shot and one she should not repeat. I do take responsibility for the work this Government does. I agree with the Deputy on that. We have many more challenges. What I am saying to the Deputy concerns housing delivery across all forms of tenure. Even if she looks at what will happen later on today, she will see that we will publish the commencement figures for August of this year. There were 2,770 new commencem…

We will do everything we can to continue with the progress we are making.

I thank Deputy Shanahan for his contribution. Of course there is a role for one-off rural housing. I am not opposed to it and never have been. Last year, 2022, over 5,500 one-off rural homes were built, 16% up on the year before. While building these, we need to make sure we are revitalising our towns and villages. That is why I have been very strong, particularly with the Croí Cónaithe vacancy grant, for which there have been over 4,000 applications. It offers €70,000 for a derelict dwelling and €50,000 for a vaca…

I understand what the Deputy is saying in that, in many instances, families or individuals talk to their Deputies or other public representatives about planning when there have been issues and when they have not been able to get planning permission. They seek advice from Deputies, and indeed councillors. I am just stating the fact that over 5,500 individual rural homes were delivered in 2022. I expect there to be more this year. There is no question but that people will have well held views about different planning…

Deputy Healy-Rae made some quite serious charges against the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, that would be-----