What the Irish people cannot afford and what the renters cannot afford is Sinn Féin and others - I apply this to everybody - consistently opposing housing projects that will increase supply.

Sinn Féin has opposed the O'Devaney Gardens project. It has opposed developments on Oscar Traynor Road.

It is estimated that Sinn Féin has opposed the construction of 6,000 homes. It does not stack up.

Sinn Féin's performance on the ground in councils the length and breadth of the country cannot be reconciled with what Deputies are saying in this House. If we agree it is a crisis, and I do-----

It is a crisis, but the most effective way of dealing with it is to get housing supply in place and to give people strength and capacity in terms of incomes and jobs. At least there is good news this morning in that over the coming years the Central Bank is projecting another 167,000 additional jobs. We are responding well to the Covid recession to an extraordinary degree in terms of the jobs that will be created. We will exceed the jobs target in our recovery plan-----

-----and will do so much earlier than was anticipated last year. Everything that can possibly be done will be done. The Deputy's proposals lack depth and substance.

There is absolutely no evidence that they would result in any reduction in rents.

The Deputy's legacy is one of rubbishing every person who provides housing for rent.

They are all leaving the market-----

-----because of the narrative that he has been putting forward. We are going to address this issue on all fronts. It is a very serious issue. We need to provide for it.

I respectfully suggest that this endless opposition to housing projects will not help renters or the construction of houses in this country.

The Deputy says that I will finally get it. She paints a narrative that I am divorced from reality and all of that.

Okay. I just want to say that my background - where I grew up and what we had to put up with - was far different to yours.

I just want to make that point. I did not interrupt you. Do not dare to lecture me. I understand the realities of life as well anybody else in this House.

I do not intend to understand it more. I know a thing or two about people being in difficulty and facing challenges in their early lives with regard to the cost of living and their backgrounds.

The most comprehensive solutions that have ever been adopted have been adopted by this Government in Housing for All.

We need co-operation across the board at every level. If politicians really believe this is a crisis, they should behave accordingly-----

-----and stop serially objecting to housing project after housing project because it does not fit some ideological framework.

You cannot have it both ways. You cannot talk to the private sector privately, as Deputy Ó Broin does, and say that you are all for private investment, that the guff and sloganeering Sinn Féin goes on with should not be listened to, and that there will be a warm house for the private sector when Sinn Féin gets into power.

That is the sort of talking out of both sides of one's mouth that has been going on. I am willing to work with all parties in this House because this crisis is too big for politics. It is not enough for parties to exploit a crisis for their own electoral gain.