In this budget, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael once again showed that they put generation rent behind the developers and investor funds, which were completely prioritised. During the election campaign, they never said that their big idea was going to be a tax-cut giveaway of up to €500 million a year to wealthy developers and funds. Today, the Government's developer VAT cut has been torn apart by none other than its own Parliamentary Budget Office over a lack of evidence and the fact that developers that have already st…

Who is? Is the Tánaiste saying I am?

That is completely untrue.

No, it is not. It is a fact that the Government is giving billions to developers and investors.

Can the Tánaiste justify billions for apartments that are built?

It is half a billion.

In two years' time, it will be up to a billion.

In four years' time, €2 billion will have been spent.

Yes, because the Government will be.

It is not.

That is not necessarily the case.

The Tánaiste still will not answer my question.

I am always delighted to go for a walk with Deputy Gould.

We need to be honest here about what is going on. Someone is spinning something or telling porkies. It was reported on RTÉ's "Prime Time" last May that there were delays. AHBs said there were delays. It cannot be easy for approved housing bodies to be publicly critical of the Department of housing and the delays in because they rely on the Department for their funding. They said it very clearly in the public domain - as well as to me and others - that there is huge uncertainty in relation to the approval of these c…

We are in agreement that we want to see as many cost rental and social homes as possible built in as quick a time as possible. I do not understand why it is coming out that there are these delays. The Minister says there are no delays. I am not satisfied that is the case because AHBs are saying there are issues of delays. The Minister also said at the housing committee that there is a finite amount of funding - which of course there is - to approve these projects. However, that has to mean that there are projects g…

Will the Minister update us on the plans to deliver the social housing projects via public-private partnerships? I understand that there are legal issues in relation to those. Is there any progress on that, particularly around the projects in Ballymun and Whitehall in my own constituency and elsewhere in Dublin? What is the status of those social housing projects? When will they be delivered? The Minister might update us on those. What are the future plans for public-private partnerships?

There may have been a different notification in relation to the question. Apologies. I will ask that question briefly.

Perfect.

There was a very clear commitment in the 2020 Fianna Fáil manifesto in relation to holding a referendum on housing. I cannot remember whether it was in Fine Gael’s manifesto as well, but I think there was a commitment around it in the 2020 programme for Government. There was also a Seanad motion passed calling for a referendum on the right to housing and a constitutional change that would insert a very clear right to housing. That was proposed by a Fianna Fáil Senator and backed by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Senator…

It is very disappointing to hear that. We are in a housing crisis and housing emergency now for well over a decade. One could argue in some respects that we have been in a housing crisis since the 1990s. House prices have been on the rise, then we had the crash, and now we are back into rising and unsustainable house prices. There is still something fundamentally wrong with our housing system, our housing market, the way we treat housing and the way we understand housing. Other countries, for example, Spain, have a…