We will exceed the housing target as well.

Your plan was rejected-----

-----and you want this plan to fail so you can politically thrive.

First, I want to extend my deepest sympathy to Deputy Sheehan's colleague Deputy George Lawlor on the passing of his mum, Betty. I understand he delivered a very heart-warming tribute to her yesterday and I join Members across the House in extending my sympathy to him and all of his family at this difficult time. I thank Deputy Sheehan for raising these issues. I accept that he does not want the plan to fail. I also accept that generally our engagements in relation to housing are constructive. We have different per…

Some of them are, and some are better than others. I do not think it is uniform across the country. I have got to be very honest. I have a league table that the Minister for housing has published, which shows some local authorities well exceeding their council targets for social housing, including the county of Wicklow that I represent, and others making a paltry contribution. When national targets are missed, they are not missed at a national level. They are missed by local authorities. I do not believe that every…

-----is going to court. One of its elected representatives has rushed to the courts to try to block those changes to apartment standards.

I ask Deputy Sheehan respectfully, as his party's spokesperson on housing-----

-----to pick up the phone to his councillor and tell him to stop weaponising the use of the courts to try to delay changes we need to make to apartment standards. There will be students in Limerick who need more apartments and student accommodation to be built and the Labour Party councillor is actively delaying that in my respectful opinion.

I always think phrases such as "donning hard hats" are a bit pejorative. People put on hard hats when they visit building sites because of health and safety. It is the law of the land. Ministers go out and about to meet people who build homes. I am proud to do that and to listen directly to the people who build homes, including at the LDA site I visited with the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, the Minister, Deputy Browne, and the Taoiseach this morning, where more than 500 homes are being built, which will come …

Deputies will continue to see the quarterly commencement figures, the completion figures, the planning permission figures and the mortgage drawdown figures, which show there are more first-time buyers now than at any point since 2007. However, just like the approach we took on the action plan for jobs, we will provide an opportunity for a pipeline over the lifetime of the Government and we will be judged on that. We have been clear in our commitment for 300,000 homes over the lifetime of the plan. That is the targe…

We will be judged on the delivery of this plan. It is a good plan and it is only part of the jigsaw. The national development plan is an equally important part in which we took the decision this summer to significantly increase investment. From memory, there will be over €50 billion extra for the enabling infrastructure such as transport, water, wastewater and energy. That will be key. The next instalment will be at the end of this month, when the Minister, Deputy Chambers, will bring forward proposals to accelerat…

The Minister for housing is attending an event. He will look forward to having a debate with the Deputy because he looks forward to hearing how the Social Democrats will build all this stuff.

It is easy to come in here and say they are against everything.

What does the Deputy think I am, his secretary? I do not know where the Minister is going.

I have missed Deputy Gould's interruptions. He was very quiet. I was wondering why he was so quiet.

Perhaps it has been a tough day at the Sinn Féin office.

Sinn Féin TDs were a bit quieter with the heckling today.

I do not know who trains Deputy O'Callaghan but he would want to get well trained before the next debate on housing.

As is often the case, I agree with the Deputy on some things and disagree with him on others. I will try to take him through that. Rents in this country are too high. That is why we have taken a number of measures to try to increase supply. I am of the view that when you increase the supply of housing, there is a demand-and-supply effect. I also believe that we need to do other things in the here and now. That is why we have taken the decision in the budget to extend the rent tax credit for the next number of years…

I am not saying that we are there, but the position is much better than it was. I am putting the House on notice that this Government intends to bring forward legislation in respect of the delivery of critical infrastructure in an emergency manner. I remind people at home that we did that before. We did it in relation to Brexit in the context of port infrastructure. We did it in Rosslare and at Dublin Port. We certainly did it for temporary gas storage. It can be done, and we need to do it. Not everything can be cl…