Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The main way in which we are trying to enable our local authorities to build more housing is through the scale of the budgets that we are making available to them. The funding for the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has significantly increased to allow our local authorities to build more housing directly. The Land Development Agency will begin its work mainly in Dublin. It is looking to find ways in which it can deliver affordable housing at a greater scale than has been possible in our country to date. In short, the way in which we are looking to meet the need to which the Deputy referred is through the amount of money that we are making available to our local authorities for them to directly build housing. As the Deputy knows, our local authorities have been open for longer than would have been the case with the private sector for the delivery of privately-owned homes in recognition of the issue the Deputy is raising.