Who knows? We might learn something.

I apologise for being slightly late for the debate. A very important session of the housing committee is taking place. The Housing Commission, after almost a year of delay and being ignored by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, is finally giving a very interesting session. I will refer to some of that in my testimony here. With respect to the remarks of the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, it is slightly ironic that he criticised Opposition parties for not being here, told us he was very interested to hear what we had to…

Talk to your colleagues before talking about objections. Talk to the Minister of State sitting beside you.

It is always somebody else's fault.

It looked for funding a year and a half ago. It is still waiting.

This is no joking matter.

Uisce Éireann wants the answer to the funding request it made a year and a half ago.

We have higher rents and higher homelessness.

There are 4,000 children homeless. That is political and it is happening on your watch.

If he answered the questions, I would.

You do not have the political will to do it. That is the problem.

Will the Minister provide an update on the ongoing delay in approvals of social and affordable housing projects for local authorities and approved housing bodies, AHBs? In particular, how many of the 3,000 units that got Cabinet funding approval on 18 February still have not been formally approved and notified to the local authorities and approved housing bodies? How many projects beyond the 3,000 are also delayed and awaiting approval in his Department?

The suggestion that what has been happening with the approvals for social and affordable housing at the end of last year and early this year is perfectly normal is simply not true. Either the Minister knows that and is refusing to address the question or he simply does not know what is going on in his Department. There is considerable frustration among local authorities, approved housing bodies and builders over the significant delay. Three thousand units were approved by the Cabinet in February but many of the rel…

I am beginning to worry that the Minister does not understand what is actually happening in his Department. I urge him to talk to local authority directors of housing and the Irish Council for Social Housing. I will forward him the details on the individual schemes by way of email after this meeting. Typically, a decision on an application from an AHB – for example, for the capital advance leasing facility – will be made in six to eight weeks. There was a large number of applications at the start of this year that …

I will let Deputy Gould catch his breath. He has run across the city, fair play to him. I am surprised the Corkman did not get lost. In light of the very real concern among local authorities and councillors, TDs and Senators, from both Government and Opposition benches, about the impact of the Government's cuts to social housing acquisition funding, including tenant in situ and housing first, will the Minister give a commitment to revisit that decision and reverse the cut to ensure that local authorities have the f…

With the greatest of respect to the Minister, what utter rubbish. When he notified local authorities of their allocations at the end of March, there was a sharp intake of breath, particularly in the large urban local authorities that have significant levels of homelessness. Not only was the capital allocation a substantial cut on what had been spent on acquisitions last year, but when the local authorities sift through the paused and delayed applications from 2024, closed or not closed, they are telling their elect…

Of course it would.

It is deeply disappointing that not only did the Minister fail to address the question but he also misrepresented Sinn Féin's policy. Let me set the record straight. In our alternative housing plan, we have made provision for 6,500 acquisitions over five years, 2,000 this year, reducing by 200 each year until 2029. That is because we make the assumption that demand for the scheme over five years will reduce. The Minister is providing no extra funding for acquisitions in the largest local authorities in this year. W…

Two thousand acquisitions this year, 1,800 next year-----

Well, you should read it again because you are misrepresenting it, Minister - deliberately.