Micheál Martin

I know. That is what I am saying, but the council should do it. More social housing has been built to facilitate rehousing people who are living in those conditions.

To respond to Deputy Murphy, I mentioned during Leaders' Questions that the Government will put in about €6 billion in 2025. It is estimated that what is required to reach the targets everybody agrees with will be between €15 billion and €20 billion. The Government will not be able to do €15 billion to €20 billion on an ongoing basis. It can do €6 billion and might even do more than that but, with…

The Housing Agency has been conducting a review of RPZs since last year. It will finish its review at the end of quarter 1. The Housing Commission asked that we would do a detailed, evidence-based examination of this German reference pricing system. That should happen because that is what the commission recommended. We do not have to go with it but at the very least we should examine it and unders…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 8 together. The Government's response to the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council's competitiveness challenge report 2024 was published on 5 November last. The Government's response was co-ordinated by the Department of An Taoiseach, drawing together material from relevant Departments. This was the fifth year in which a formal response was issue…

The Deputy is fairly competitive in here.

I am conscious that Deputy Shane Moynihan and-----

Dúirt an Teachta Shane Moynihan go raibh fonn air béim a chur ar na mionchomhlachtaí agus aontaím leis. Phléigh sé conas is féidir linn iad a threisiú agus a dhéanamh níos láidre diaidh ar ndiaidh agus an tslí ar féidir linn é sin a dhéanamh. On competitiveness, the scaling up of smaller companies has been a key agenda item for Enterprise Ireland for quite a long time. It takes a great deal to fo…

On the EU capital markets union, I discussed that with President Costa. Ireland will have a key role. That needs to happen for the future of Europe and releasing capital on European -----

I thought the Deputy might grab the opportunity.

Níl aon dabht ann ach gurb í an ghéarchéim is mó atá againn sa tír seo ná an easpa tithíochta. Níl a dhóthain tithe againn. Caithfimid gach aon dícheall a dhéanamh chun i bhfad níos mó tithe a chruthú chomh tapa agus is féidir linn. Housing is the number one social priority in this country. It goes to the heart of cohesion in this country, and it is the Government's priority, as it was during the …

No, they were not.

Clearly the targets-----

-----were realistic because targets are-----

-----assessed by a number of factors.

Need is a different question to target. Need relates to our population growth. We have to devise methods, mechanisms and policies that get us to what we need. I do not dispute what we need. Different parties had different programmes in the last general election.

Could I say to the Deputy that if we take the three years combined, 2022, 2023 and 2024----

----we exceeded our targets by close to 5,000 houses. That is not of interest to the Deputy.

The bottom line of the general election is that the programme Sinn Féin put forward did not persuade people. It wanted to dramatically disrupt and change the Land Development Agency.

Sinn Féin wanted to get rid of the help-to-buy scheme and the first home scheme, which are so beneficial to first-time buyers. Its programme did not persuade.

The platform as to how Sinn Féin was going to achieve a housing breakthrough or higher numbers simply did not persuade people.

The Deputy has got to acknowledge that is the reality of it. We have exceeded targets in two years. In the third year, we did not. I am extremely disappointed with that. The estimates out there from the entities I have identified were clearly pointing in a direction which did not turn out to be the case.

Stoirm uafásach a bhí ann, is dócha an ceann is measa a bhí againn riamh. Níl aon amhras faoi sin. Caithfimid a bheith an-bhuíoch do gach éinne a thug cabhair agus tacaíocht do dhaoine ar fud na tíre. This was a severe, unprecedented storm, the likes of which we have not witnessed in living memory. It caused widespread devastation throughout the country, particularly along the western seaboard and…

I will say more on that if I get a chance.

There are 3,000 ESB Networks crew members, with crews from the UK, France, Finland, Germany, Austria, Norway and the Netherlands. I thank all of the 3,000 people involved in all of those crews. We can say “Do it faster" but they have been working day and night since the storm began. There is no additional capacity other than what is there in those 3,000 crew members. I think we have to pay a very …

As I have said already, housing is the number one issue. It was not, in any shape or form, a deliberate attempt to mislead people. I have quoted those who early in the year and mid-year were predicting close to 40,000, such as EY-Euroconstruct, Deutsche Bank and Cairn Homes. Others, by the way, in other years the Deputy identified, underestimated the number of houses that were subsequently built.…