Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The cost of building a house is an issue that has arisen all the time. I thank Mr. McDonagh for his outline. Is the cost of building apartments different? If so, is there any chance of getting that information? Yesterday, we went to see modular housing in Ballymun and I have to say that I was impressed. Cherry Orchard, which is in my constituency, is one of a number of sites designated for modular housing. The biggest problem we heard about yesterday in the context of building modular housing and existing residents does not relate to the actual houses themselves but rather to the tenants who are going to occupy them going into them. In general, local authorities need to tackle that end of things as well. In the past, they have not been able to deal with anti-social behaviour on the part of their own tenants, not to mention private ones. That has been a real downfall on the part of councils. If they dealt with that, people would be more accepting of having certain individuals move into their areas. It is shameful that those to whom I refer are not accepted. My family and I have all lived in social housing. I am surprised that people do not want social housing back in areas where our children want to live. I wanted to make that off-the-cuff comment because I really believe that a social mix is important in the context of every site. If there is going to be a 200-unit development in Cherry Orchard, I hope it will have widespread support.