Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry, Mr. Doyle, even if I had 20 minutes, it would not be enough time, so I am going to move on. I do not understand why the leasing was even permitted in the first place. I cannot imagine how a cost-benefit analysis, in a time when the Department has been not constrained, would have found this to be an appropriate policy position. I will leave the matter there.

On social homes, it was stated that 10,200 social homes for households on waiting lists were delivered in 2022. Some of these are leased. Others are turnkey properties, where a developer builds a housing estate and then the local authority comes in and purchases it. There would have been an expectation that these houses would have gone on the open market but they do not because they are purchased by the local authority. Of the 10,200 social homes, how many were built, from design to delivery, by the local authorities? I know there will always be a need to bring in a builder and do tenders and all that work, but my question concerns the number of units built by local authorities from the design to delivery stages. If the number is very low, what is the impediment?