TÁNAISTE MICHEÁL MARTIN has defended the Government’s record and says his party has done its best for the country, amid crises such as Brexit and a significant rise in the cost of living in recent years.

The Fianna Fáil leader bristled when asked in a radio interview this morning about record homelessness, hospital waiting lists and emigration.

In response to a question about why his party hasn’t taken action on these key issues during its stint in Government and while propping up Fine Gael in a confidence-and-supply arrangement from 2016 to 2020, Martin had a strong back-and-forth with RTÉ presenter Audrey Carville.

“Fianna Fáil have been in government for four years,” said Martin.

“Ah now, come on,” said Carville.

“No, you come on,” Martin replied. “That’s the Mary Lou [McDonald], Sinn Féin narrative, now come on. That’s the old line from Sinn Féin: ‘You’ve been in confidence supply’.

“Well, the positive thing for the country, insofar as Fianna Fáil contributed to a government at a time when Brexit happened, and Brexit was an existential threat at the time to our trade and economy.

“We did the right thing by the country, maybe not by the party … then that gets thrown at us.”

Martin said there are two narratives in the country: a “Sinn Féin narrative” that says the country is a failure, and another narrative which says the economic model in use has served the country well in recent decades.

He added that he doesn’t accept that Ireland is a “failed State”.

Apple money

Ireland is set to come into about €14 billion soon, after the European Court of Justice last week ruled that Apple must make up for unpaid taxes.

Martin said he expects the money may be added to the State’s purse before the end of this government’s term, but that “it will not feature in this budget”.

However, he added, there will still be a surplus to play with on 1 October.

“As the Minister of Finance Jack Chambers said, we are having many ‘Apples’ over the last number of years because of the very significant amounts of corporation tax revenue that is coming in,” said Martin.

The Apple money “presents opportunities for us to future proof key investments”, such as housing and water quality, he said.

“The Apple money gives us additional capacity to say to people, if we ring fence it for housing, or a certain proportion of it to housing, we can future proof house spending for the next five years on a capital site, or at least support the necessary investment over the next decade. We could capitalise the land development agency, for example.”

Housing targets are to be revised before the end of the year, he said. Currently, the official government target is 30,000 houses built per annum. Martin says this figure needs to rise to 60,000 in the coming years.

“Targets are not a ceiling.”

While the government exceeded the 30,000 goal last year, it has missed its affordable housing targets for three years in a row. He said they’re “close to” achieving this year’s target of 9,300 new build homes.