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
I would appreciate if Deputy Bacik would send me a paper on the housing solidarity bond. It is a headline at the moment but if she can send me a paper on it we will examine it. Effectively, through the CREL initiative, for example, and the LDA has effectively been upfronting the financing of a lot of private sector housing. That is de facto what is happening right now through the LDA.
There is an issue with the cost of financing but the State cannot be the first and last bank of resort in respect of house construction. Probably up to €7 billion and more this year is the totality of State spending on housing.
Whatever way we look at it, we do have to look at the cost of financing and I have mentioned here that the commercial banks have to do more in respect of lending at sustainable rates to builders to build in the private sector. We will continue to focus on that work.
As of now the State is already in the space of facilitating acting as a catalyst in terms of the private sector, with State underpinning essentially or back-up.
The Deputy attacks because the target last year was not met. When the target was exceeded in 2022 and 2023, the Deputy's line was that the targets were not high enough. No matter what target gets set in here, the Deputy will always find a way to say that the Government is either not setting a target high enough, or if it exceeds it, it clearly did not set it high enough, and so forth. Now the Deputy wants me to set a target two months into the year again so that he can have another go at the setting of targets.
My focus now, fundamentally, is to work on a whole set of policies that can get us more houses built faster for young people in particular, so that they can afford to either buy or rent homes. There is a range of issues we have to examine in that regard and continue to develop. As I said, we have already allocated an additional €800 million in respect of housing in the first two to three months of this Government, over and above what was allocated, to get more housing through. The Deputy referenced planning permiss…
First of all, the 41,000 remains a target.
Just on the issue-----
I am answering it. I am going to answer-----
On the data the Deputy is talking about, the Central Bank published the September figures-----
Hold on a second-----
Deputy Doherty is not answering the question. Sit down.
I am not misleading the Dáil at all.
Deputy Doherty did.
The fundamental point I am making is that the figures the Deputy is making a big song and dance about were published, not by the Department of Finance, but by the Central Bank in September. The Deputy and I knew them, but we had other figures saying they would be higher. The Central Bank-----
Deputy Doherty was not asking the question. It was the Social Democrats.
The point I am trying to make to the Deputy is there were different estimates and so on about targets.
The previous year, the Central Bank underestimated what we would increase by.
In terms of the individual summaries Ministers get, many were referring to the Central Bank's reports.
Others were referring to EUROCONSTRUCT-----