Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are trying to ensure that mixed tenure is provided where possible in the new social housing developments that we are funding. It is not always possible. Sometimes we will fund the more traditional local authority housing estate. We have signed off on many of those in the last six months. Tens of millions of euro are being spent on them. On big sites such as O'Devaney Gardens, Oscar Traynor Road, St. Teresa's Gardens and so on, there are very significant sums of public money going into regenerating communities as well as providing social housing. We are trying to incorporate mixed tenure, which would include affordable rental where possible and private housing, as part of those developments. That is a good thing to attempt to do. Many other parties support us in trying to do that. However, it is not always possible. It depends on the size of the site and the number of houses concerned. Many of the sites Deputy Ellis referred to comprise 30, 40 or 50 social houses. Trying to force mixed tenure into smaller estates might be more trouble than it is worth. The core issue here is to get social housing of good quality built with good facilities as part of those developments.