On prevailing side: this member voted with the winning side in 509 of 516 decisive votes (0 abstentions excluded). Read it as a government-or-opposition indicator rather than a measure of influence — the figure is near 100% for members supporting the government of the day and near 0% for those opposing it.
This is the point of the site: contributions keep the party held on the day, not the one held now.
| Party | Recorded as | Contributions | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| FF | Fianna Fáil | 19,180 | 2020-02-20 – 2026-09-30 |
Membership spells on record: FF 1989-06-15–1992-11-05 · FF 1992-11-25–1997-05-15 · FF 1997-06-06–2002-04-25 · FF 2002-05-17–2007-04-30 · FF 2007-05-24–2011-02-01 · FF 2011-02-25–2016-03-09 · FF 2016-03-10–2020-01-14 · FF 2020-02-08–2024-11-08 · FF 2024-11-29–present
In the first three years of Housing for All - 2022 to 2024 - overall housing targets were exceeded. It is not all failure and failure as Deputy McDonald dismisses it. Those were the targets set by Housing for All and they were exceeded. More than 130,000 houses were constructed.
We need to do much, much more. The ESRI has said that the need, as a result of population growth and so on, is approximately 50,000 per annum. Sinn Féin has failed in any shape or form to provide any substance underpinning housing policy in respect of how it would achieve that target, never mind the 30,000-plus that have been achieved on an annual basis over the past three years.
Its policies were demonstrably anti-first-time buyer and there has been quite a significant drawdown of mortgages. Up to 120,000 first-time buyer mortgages have been drawn down over the past number of years.
If Sinn Féin had its way, it would have taken away the supports such as the help to buy scheme or indeed the first home scheme from those first-time buyers and it would have destroyed the momentum that has been built up over the past number of years-----
-----in respect of first-time buyers. That is the reality. Deputy Mac Lochlainn can smile all he likes but that is the truth. Sinn Féin wanted to get rid of the help to buy scheme. It wanted to get rid of the bridge the gap scheme. Will he please explain to first-time buyers how that would have assisted them? It would not have in any shape or form. We will maintain the focus on social housing, affordable housing and on our work with the Land Development Agency. Already this year, an additional €800 million has been…
That includes €450 million for a further 3,000 affordable and social homes and €325 million in respect of second-hand acquisitions, incorporating the tenant in situ scheme and the provision for that. Since 2023 alone-----
-----over 3,300 homes have been acquired through second-hand acquisitions, as they are called, by local authorities across the country. We have published the national planning framework since coming back into office, which will facilitate the zoning of a considerably greater degree of land. I hope Sinn Féin will support that on local authorities across the country and get rid of its serial opposition to social housing that has been demonstrated time and time again.
The heads of the short-term lets Bill have been brought to Cabinet-----
-----and approved by Cabinet.
The Government decided today to establish the housing activation office. No decision has been taken as to who will head up that office but the person will be seconded from within the public service. That is an intention, which basically means there will be no additional cost in salary or whatever-----
-----to housing - or to anybody, for that matter - in terms of a secondment-----
-----within the public service. That is the objective, but no decision has been made, so I am not in a position to confirm anything to Deputy McDonald today in that respect.
I wish to confirm to the Deputy that the Central Statistics Office on Thursday - and the Deputy is good for giving her side or perspective all the time - indicated that close to 6,000 new homes were completed in the first quarter of 2025, which is the second highest first quarter delivery since the day the series began in 2011 and a 2% increase on the first quarter of 2024. It is a figure that the Deputy did not in any shape or form refer to.
That is not surprising because she did not in any shape or form want to point to any figures that would give some degree of positive reality. We want to build far more and we acknowledge that we have far more to build. The Deputy has a record of opposing well over 1,000 houses in her own constituency.
She has put her own constituency needs above and beyond the housing-----
She did. She objected to well over 1,000 houses in her constituency.
It is a bit rich of her to come in here on a daily basis ranting about housing when her own record in respect of giving it the ultimate priority that it deserves is fairly poor in terms of her performance.
The programme for Government-----
-----is clear in its decision. The programme ordained that we would set up a housing activation office because we are going to consistently add to the initiatives we have taken in housing-----
-----and we make no apologies for doing further in terms of-----