Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

My point follows on from Deputy Naughten's point. This amendment might make sense if the Government gave us a commitment and a cast-iron guarantee that the capital will be provided by the Government when the local authorities come up with plans to develop sites that are suitable for social housing where there is a social housing need.

This pertains to something that I am very uncertain about in terms of the Government's whole approach to the social housing crisis. The Government states that the money is available but it is up to the local authorities to provide the housing. Is the money really there for the local authorities? I can think of several sites owned by my local authority which are earmarked for social housing, but we have been told by the local authority that it does not have the money to develop the sites. If the Minister of State is saying that all the local authorities have to do is to come up with a plan to put social housing on those sites and the Minster will give them the money, I might support this.