The bottom line of the general election is that the programme Sinn Féin put forward did not persuade people. It wanted to dramatically disrupt and change the Land Development Agency.

Sinn Féin wanted to get rid of the help-to-buy scheme and the first home scheme, which are so beneficial to first-time buyers. Its programme did not persuade.

The platform as to how Sinn Féin was going to achieve a housing breakthrough or higher numbers simply did not persuade people.

The Deputy has got to acknowledge that is the reality of it. We have exceeded targets in two years. In the third year, we did not. I am extremely disappointed with that. The estimates out there from the entities I have identified were clearly pointing in a direction which did not turn out to be the case.

Stoirm uafásach a bhí ann, is dócha an ceann is measa a bhí againn riamh. Níl aon amhras faoi sin. Caithfimid a bheith an-bhuíoch do gach éinne a thug cabhair agus tacaíocht do dhaoine ar fud na tíre. This was a severe, unprecedented storm, the likes of which we have not witnessed in living memory. It caused widespread devastation throughout the country, particularly along the western seaboard and in the north west of our country. Many people have suffered a lot during this period because of power outages, lack of …

I will say more on that if I get a chance.

There are 3,000 ESB Networks crew members, with crews from the UK, France, Finland, Germany, Austria, Norway and the Netherlands. I thank all of the 3,000 people involved in all of those crews. We can say “Do it faster" but they have been working day and night since the storm began. There is no additional capacity other than what is there in those 3,000 crew members. I think we have to pay a very strong, sincere tribute to the crews of ESB Networks and all those crews who came from overseas to help us in what was t…

As I have said already, housing is the number one issue. It was not, in any shape or form, a deliberate attempt to mislead people. I have quoted those who early in the year and mid-year were predicting close to 40,000, such as EY-Euroconstruct, Deutsche Bank and Cairn Homes. Others, by the way, in other years the Deputy identified, underestimated the number of houses that were subsequently built. That is something Deputy O'Callaghan has not spoken of. We exceeded our targets in 2022 and in 2023, which the Deputy di…

-----in terms of the housing issue and the housing market.

One of the challenges we have, and it will remain a challenge irrespective of what gets said, is how we balance the unprecedented level of State investment in housing with private sector investment in housing, because if we want to get to 50,000 homes per year, we are going to have to do that. That will need fairly focused, specific change in what we have been doing. I acknowledge that. I have said we are disappointed we did not reach our targets, and I regret that very strongly, but it just redoubles my effort to …

-----at all of the initiatives that have happened in recent years and where we have to do more. I would respectfully suggest it is not in opposing every initiative the Government comes forward with. It is not taking safe options such as saying it all has to be social housing on one side or nothing, which delayed housing schemes-----

You did - which delayed housing schemes for years in this country. Absolute fundamentalism in respect of how things should happen has held back housing growth in this country. I am going to put it to the Deputy that we are going to take initiatives here and I would welcome his support for them, instead of what has happened over the past four years, where you have opposed every single progressive measure designed to get increased output in housing.

First of all, as I said to the Deputy, and I will say again, there was no attempt to mislead the public on this. That is the first point. I will make another point. We used ESRI data for our election targets in housing, which the Deputy's party did and everybody did. The fundamental question is how the targets are achieved. That is the core question. What the Social Democrats put forward on its election manifesto and programme did not persuade people that it had a silver bullet on housing because it did not. I met …

One of your main contributions to that meeting, and I remember it well, was you looking at your watch: nudge, nudge, time to get out to make the 6 o'clock news for the soundbite. That was your contribution to Government talks.

That is what happened. We saw it on our side: nudge, nudge, look at the watch, we better get out and get the 6 o'clock news.

The Social Democrats had no commitment to going into Government.

On the Sinn Féin strategy, I believe the party did tell journalists that it was going to bring a new aggression in its Oireachtas strategy. I think it has decided to import the total opposition approach which has now become the norm in many parliaments that are dominated by populists.

On the issue raised by Deputy McDonald, we have the largest population in our history. By the way, we have the largest Dáil in our history. We have gone from 160 Teachtaí to 174. I do not see any 14 volunteers who want to resign their Dáil seats. We have a growing agenda and I would argue - I will be clear about it - that the legislation governing Cabinet and Secretary numbers and all of that is out of date. One can either have an honest debate about that-----

-----or not. We have just-----

We have just discussed climate and the storm. The storm is a consequence of climate change. These are issues that were not there when the Constitution was enacted, in terms of the number of Ministers and so on. There is a whole range of new areas: energy, offshore renewable and so on. We need a Minister of State for the marine. We need a Minister of State for migration. Of that there can be no question. Marine is so important in so many aspects now. There are big issues on security and defence which dominated in Eu…