Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have an issue with the Government targets. I think they are too low. Every local authority official who appears before the committee states they are meeting the targets but the housing emergency is getting worse every day. How can they meet every target yet the housing crisis continues to get worse? The only explanation is that the targets are too low. If we are looking at the addition of between 700 and 900 new applications each year and, on top of that, the threshold is increased, that will increase the number of people who come onto the list. This is no criticism of either local authority. The criticism is that the Government targets are too low. In four or five years, when the witnesses, committee members or whoever are back here, the crisis will be worse based on these figures. In Kildare, for example, the total number of units to be built, acquired and leased is 2,693 units. Is that estimated figure correct?