----- both on the social housing level, affordable housing and generally across the situation and we will continue to do that.

We brought in the rent credit, which is quite significant in itself and has been in terms of its impact.

I have. The Deputy has asked a range of questions, to be fair. On the homelessness question, the Minister is taking a different approach to the eviction ban because we believe the eviction ban will damage supply but what we can do in terms of homeless is have a very specific programme and an allocated resource. The Minister received €50 million earlier this year in respect of taking families out of homelessness and allocating social housing in a ring-fenced, specific way.

The Minister is committed to doing that and he received additional resources in the budget to double down on that and to have a particularly focused programme in respect of children in homelessness. As the Deputy knows, people enter and exit homelessness on an ongoing basis.

The issue for us is to get families and children out of homelessness as quickly as possible. It is much more complex than has been articulated by the Deputy and others in this House.

Homelessness is much more complex today, and the Deputy knows that.

That is why there will also be legislative changes to some aspects of what is going on as well.

First of all, I would reject completely the analysis of the Deputy. We have been listening to a lot of empty rhetoric on the side of the Opposition in respect of housing. As I said earlier, housing supply is not where we want it to be but it is significantly way up on where it was five years ago on an annual basis. In the second quarter of this year, there were very high figures - the highest since 2008. Now they need to be, and we need to get to 50,000 houses. The Deputy's savings plan is not going to do that this…

Of course we did not wait for the housing action plan. We have brought in a range of measures since the beginning of the year, most of which the Deputy has opposed, as she opposed most measures in respect of housing from the planning Act right through. This budget allocates significantly more resources again on very substantial State investment in housing - a 20% increase in overall funding to housing. I heard Deputy Bacik talk about it having been "commodified and marketised". In the name of God, it is the State t…

It is the State investing across a broad sweep of housing policies. What has to happen is that the State funding has to be balanced by private sector finance. I know the Deputy hates that. The Deputy has an instinctive ideological opposition to that, which I disagree with. Until we get a significant financial investment from the private sector in housing, we are not going to get to 50,000.

The State cannot sustainably finance on its own the building of 50,000 to 60,000 houses for the next decade, so strategy and policy must reflect the continuance of unprecedented Government investment but complemented and supplemented by private sector investment. That is the clear strategic approach of Government. It is not panic mode or anything of the sort but it is relentless and it is focused. We are not going to be sidetracked by populist short-term declarations, announcements or soundbites that look good. Sou…

We want to build infrastructure, water and grid, which are central to housing. That is what enables us to build more houses.

Water, grid and public transport are the fundamental pieces of infrastructure that make house building possible.

A total of €4 billion alone in current expenditure is being provided for housing for 2026. This is an increase of €600 million. Key elements of this will go to homeless services-----

-----to ensure that local authorities can provide emergency accommodation. Well, it has to be done. For God's sake, we have to provide it.

The Deputy would be the very first guy condemning us if we did not.

There are homeless prevention measures, tenancy sustainment measures and so on, and enabling people to exit emergency accommodation as quickly as possible. We will fund over 5,000 new homes under the social housing current expenditure programme. We continue to support over 40,000 existing homes under the scheme. There is €470 million to support an additional 7,000 new tenancies. At present there are 50,000 tenants. There are significant numbers moving to more permanent social housing. Over 28,000 transfers to other…

That is not a soundbite or rhetoric. That is unprecedented investment in housing and that is reflected this year as well.

It is quite interesting that a representative of a far-left party like Deputy Murphy is an advocate for universal credits, which benefit the wealthiest in society as well as everybody else. That is quite an extraordinary contradiction of the viewpoints he often articulates. The Minister has established a national energy affordability task force because there is an issue with energy affordability. That is acknowledged. The Deputy has made the point that he would get rid of the regulatory framework and renationalise …

That is not true.