Rory Hearne

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.

4. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to outline the way in which his Department plans to address approval lags for cost rental equity loan, CREL, funding; the reason capital advance leasing facility, CALF, and CREL funding is being approved at different times; the number of units which have been delayed, in tabular form; and his plans to address these…

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…

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 amoun…

10. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his plans to hold a referendum and legislate for a constitutional right to housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53899/25]

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 …

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…

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…

That is because the numbers are increasing so high.

As a new TD, I am shocked by the lack of Government Ministers and TDs on the benches opposite. This is a debate about the budget. What is happening is absolutely farcical.

The Government talks about wanting to hear views and ideas from the Opposition, but its Ministers and TDs do not even bloody bother to turn up in the Dáil to listen. The Minister of State is the only one here. It is an absolute disgrace, but in some ways it is not surprising. It is just a continuation of the cynical and misleading actions of the Government during the election campaign. The Govern…

I will speak to resolution No.4. In this reduction in the VAT rate, the Government is very clearly throwing us back to an Ireland that we thought we had left behind. It is the Ireland of crony deals and dig-outs for developers and the wealthy. I was wondering if Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael did some séance or bring out a Ouija board to design the budget? Did they conjure up the spirit of Charlie Haug…

I want to back up my colleague and others who have said that this is incredible. The Minister needs to explain the basis on which the decision was made to hand money over to developers and investor funds that are already building these homes. What is happening is illogical. What is the rationale behind it? We need an explanation. This involves significant amounts of public money. Is it another exa…

Potentially, those building and developing apartments, and let us say an apartment is potentially going for sale for €600,000 or €800,000, are getting €160,000 or €170,000 State subsidy per apartment. Will the Minister clarify that please?