Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. His comments on the HAP scheme are welcome and I share them. It is a real support and does meet people's needs. The private rental sector is necessary, as I have acknowledged, but it should not be as necessary as it is. These are the legacy issues the Government took up in 2011. We have been working to address them and are working ambitiously on Rebuilding Ireland, under which 50,000 new homes will come into the stock of social housing. The HAP scheme gives choice, autonomy and independence. However, that independence and autonomy are not going to work for everyone. We recognise this, which is why we have a stock of social housing coming. It is also why we are talking about other supports to come with the HAP scheme, as well as the place finder service. New homes are being built and not just by local authorities. We saw the CSO data in terms of the new transparency as a result of a request that I made that they be drilled down into to get us actual completion numbers. It is very good information and we want to build on the numbers again this year, but there are more things we need to do. We have to continue to be proactive in this area. I will continue to host housing summits to drive the local authorities. When it comes to compulsory purchase orders, CPOs, the local authorities have the power, policy, money and resources. We need to make sure they are doing what they should be doing when it comes to CPOs, vacancies and other matters.

We are here to talk about the two reports. That being the case, this is not to move into another area, but when we talk about new measures, when we look at the numbers, yes, we are seeing these increases in supply. However, there is more we could do on the issue of land. There will be further measures announced in that regard in the coming months, as well as the further things we are going to do to protect people who are renting while we put in place the tens of thousands of new homes that are currently being constructed or in the pipeline for construction throughout the country.