John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is part of a major issue being faced by this country, namely, the availability of housing in general, and social housing is a big part of that. I read some figures yesterday suggesting that while it is necessary to build 25,000 units per annum, only 6,500 are being built per year. Consequently, there is a time element involved, even though it represents a small percentage of these figures. How will the Department get around this housing shortage that we probably will be facing over the coming years? Is this a huge issue for the Department? It popped out at me that there also was an underspend in the homelessness budget of €5.1 million. In general, however, can the Department give me a response on that figure of 25,000 units that some people estimate will be needed to accommodate people at a time when only 6,500 units are being built?