Taoiseach tells Mary Lou McDonald she would win an Olympic gold medal in ‘fluency and verbosity’ in Dáil housing row

The pair engaged in a row after the Sinn Féin leader argued the report of the Housing Commission revealed the Government had paid out €10 billion in accommodation supports since 2011 – with nothing to show for it.

The money was spent on HAP, RAS and the Rent Supplement schemes to help people afford accommodation.

"You say landlords, I say renters," the Taoiseach said as to who was benefiting from the vast expenditure.

He held up a graph to show ramped-up housing provision since the Government came to office in 2020.

Simon Harris said that the situation in 2011, amid the financial crash, was the State could not afford a house-building programme and had provided supports where it could.

He said €3.2bn had been spent on rent supplement, €1.8bn on RAS, and €3.5bn on HAP, a total of €8.5bn.

But Ms McDonald said the findings in the Housing Commission report – to be published later today – were "damning", a description repeated by Richard Boyd Barrett of People Before Profit.

She said the money had not gone into "bricks and mortar", while Mr Boyd Barrett said the money had gone to developers, landlords and investors, and the Government's housing policy was "a dog's dinner".

The Sinn Féin leader said the report showed "Government waste of money".

She said: "By comparison with our European partners, Ireland has one of the highest levels of public expenditure for housing, yet one of the poorest outcomes. You have to ask yourself, why that is? Well, it's because you decided to pass the State's responsibility for housing people to private landlords."

Last week she had raised long-term leasing by local authorities, with €3bn "you’re forking over to wealthy property funds to lease homes that neither the State nor the tenants will ever own.

"In one case, you're coughing up close to €1 million for one property in Dublin that goes back to the fund after 25 years. It's incredible incompetence."

She said the €10bn spent on supports was money "that could have been used, should have been used, to build tens of thousands of permanent homes for ordinary people.

"But instead you pay out €10bn to keep workers and families in the private rental sector with very little housing security. Housing supports are necessary, but they must be short term and temporary. Not a never-ending bill for the taxpayer."

Mr Harris said he could "paper the walls" with Sinn Féin demands for more expenditure on financial supports for rental tenants.