Mr. John McCarthy:

I thank the Deputy. I suppose the social housing piece is part of the wider housing situation. The Government has recognised the need to get back to the position of having a sustainable level of construction activity in the country, including in respect of housing. Many years ago, construction probably accounted for more than 20% of GNP. It is now back to approximately 6%, and the aim of the Government's construction strategy is to restore that to a more sustainable level of between 12% and 13% of GNP. Within the construction strategy, there is a wide variety of measures, for some of which my Department is responsible. Others, such as those pertaining to development finance, mortgage lending and so on, are the responsibility of the Department of Finance. All the issues that are connected with this or must be dealt with to support the increase in activity in the construction sector are being dealt with in this integrated way, with the Department having a very important role in that regard. Consequently, it is a major issue for us.

Specifically in respect of the social housing side, one commitment that has been made is to develop a new social housing strategy, and this will be developed by the end of the third quarter of this year. Consequently, work is progressing on that strategy, and much of the work and attention that must be devoted in this regard pertains to what potential funding mechanisms can accommodate the constraints in terms of public funding, while at the same time trying to harvest whatever capacity there is in terms of private funding, in a way that can support the maximum level of housing delivery. That social housing strategy will be designed to project forward for the five years ahead as to what the Government will deliver.