You were the Minister for housing who would end homelessness. Do you remember that?

I listened to the debate on the motion of confidence in the Government, and Ministers and Deputies from Government parties, one after another, rolled out and talked about the great work the Government is doing to deliver housing and all the start-ups. The fact is that in my 14 years in politics, it has never been as bad as it is now. This is not just Sinn Féin talking; all of the Opposition are saying the same. It is not just us. It is also the Simon Community, the Peter McVerry Trust and the Cork Penny Dinners. An…

What is the Minister going to do?

We want homes now.

We want homes now. People need homes now. They are sick and tired of listening to bluff.

I have objected to no developments. I have never objected to any of them.

As my colleague Deputy Ó Broin has said, this is very important legislation. It requires a great deal of scrutiny and thought. It is disappointing that it is coming through at this time of year and in a rushed manner, as Deputy Ó Broin has outlined, particularly as we are looking at really substantive issues and very complex areas. We want to work with the Minister. This is a matter that we all know needs to be resolved. We need good, strong legislation. It is absolutely vital that we see proper regulation of devel…

I will ask the Minister about the targets towards which the vacant homes unit in his Department is working, to tackle vacancy and dereliction.

On 5 May, the Minister of State confirmed to me through a response to a parliamentary question that he had no targets for social housing voids and that local authorities should set them. On 26 April, the Minister confirmed to me, again through a response to a parliamentary question, that he had not instructed local authorities to set targets for any area of vacancy, either voids or private, but that it would be kept under consideration. Overall targets for Housing for All, as the Minister of State has just outlined…

What I heard from what the Minister of State said was that having 90,000 vacant houses is not an issue because that is only 4.5% of the overall stock of housing. That is not good enough for a person stuck in the middle of a housing crisis who is looking at vacant and derelict houses in every city, town and village. In 2018, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, referenced voids and said: It beggars belief that we are here talking about this issue again when we cannot even get our act together in terms of the proper…

We can send the quotation on to the Minister. Here we are in 2022, four years later. Deputy Darragh O'Brien is the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and he cannot even fix the problem he called a scandal four years ago.

I am quoting the Minister.

How many of the Minister's staff are working on vacant homes?

I asked a question but did not get an answer.

Will the Minister provide an update on affordable housing in Cork city? Is he satisfied with the progress the scheme is making?

Cork City Council was only set a target of 78 affordable homes on average each year between now and 2025. That target is too low. Something the Minister has to be very aware of and the Government has to be extremely careful of is that they are creating the expectation for people who are trapped in a housing crisis that affordable homes and cost rentals will be delivered. The Minister outlined statistics. I do not disagree with any of them. It is the timeline that I disagree with, because I do not believe those deve…

I just want to make one point. The average cost of a house in Cork under this agency is €323,000, which is €50,000 more than the average purchase price. That is what the Minister will be supplying in Togher this year.

The Minister had many questions to deal with, but I was looking for more specific information for Cork. The figures I have show that nearly 2,600 passport applications were awaiting processing in January and that this figure rose to more than 9,000 in May. I would like to get an update regarding where we are now because my office has been inundated with people contacting me about passport applications. Regarding the issue of whether there should be the ability to print passports in Cork, it would be a big advantage…

The number of passport applications coming in from the North just goes to show the need for a passport office in the Six Counties. I ask the Minister, the Department and the Government to look at that need. As for the Minister's comments about a new passport office in Cork, I suggest that if it is not to be in the city centre, it be on the northside. The reason for that is that a study we did a number of years ago with a Labour Party council at the time, under Michael Ahern, in Cork, showed that there were over 30 …

Is the Minister looking at an office?