Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This came up on Second Stage and I did not get a chance to respond because we ran out of time. Local government resources will be provided to deal with this. Next week or in the coming days I will make a significant announcement on that. The Government has committed under Housing for All to provide resources to local government, has done so already in relation to housing delivery teams and will be doing more of that. We need to resource them where needed. I agree with the Deputy on that. My colleagues in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown through Deputy Devlin and others have been on to me also. It will be addressed. The amendment is out of order but it was raised by a number of Deputies on Second Stage and I had no time to respond so am formally doing so now. I assure the Deputy that will be done.

On the other point, affordable housing is central to everything the Government and I, as Minister, are doing at every opportunity. There is the LDA Bill, which refers to population centres of over 150,000, that is, Dublin and Cork. Great work has been done by Deputy Duffy, who is a member of this committee, on that. We have 100% affordable and social in those areas. We are increasing the Part V provision. The Affordable Housing Act has been passed and was supported by most of the Opposition. We will lead with our local authorities delivering affordable homes. The Deputy is right that we want to see more affordable housing. We want to see affordability permeate the housing market. That is where we need to get to. We are not there but are making changes in that regard.

We are acutely aware of local government resources and I will make an announcement in the coming days on that.