Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is important in increasing overall supply, but it also makes a massive difference in communities. I spoke about this at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Ballymun has more than 70% low-income social housing, which we know is not good for that community and the people who live there. Providing affordable purchase, not just for people who are in the surrounding areas, but for children who have done well, have gone to college and have benefited from the supports we put into social programmes in Ballymun, want to come back to live beside their parents. They want to buy a home. We have 19 sites in Ballymun, 28 ha of land, all of which is in public ownership. I do not yet feel the ambition to deliver on those. They are all within our gift. I fully appreciate and have talked to Dublin City Council about what they want to do on different sites, but the timelines are all still around 2024 and 2025, which seems like a long time.

It is not just those 19 sites in Ballymun. I could talk about the Kildonan and Church of the Annunciation sites in Finglas. There are so many sites that communities want developed. We know it will have a benefit, that the toolbox and the €4 billion are there, and there is a real impatience to get this up and running. I will end on this point. The Department needs to spend whatever money and resources it has to impart that ambition and to hold local authorities and approved housing bodies, AHBs, to account. If we do not lead that ambition, we will not solve the housing crisis.