Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his opening statement. Unlike the Secretary General of the Department of Finance, members of this committee will not be complaining about overspend or requests for additional moneys. Our questions are friendly questions on this occasion. I will stick to the Estimates and we will deal with policy issues at tomorrow's committee meeting.

I wish to get more detail on subhead A. The Minister said the extra €60 million would fund 203 permanent beds and 130 contingency beds. On a back-of-the-envelope calculation that is approximately €180,000 per bed, which seems incredibly expensive. Is the €60 million just for those 333 beds? Is it for purchasing properties? Is it for construction? I do not question the spending on emergency accommodation, but €180,000 per bed is a big figure.

Where exactly is that money going? Is it going on local authority new builds or acquisitions? Is it going on approved housing bodies? At the end of quarter 2 the social housing pipeline construction report indicated we were far behind in builds although ahead on acquisitions. Where do we stand in the overall output?

I might have a few short supplementary questions, but those are the main questions at the moment.