Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I would love more questions, but I will wind up shortly. Let us look at the 2030 figure for Housing for All, which is approximately 40,500. Now, all parties and none are saying it is 50,000, 55,000, 60,000 or whatever it might be. We are exceeding the Housing for All target by a little each year.

To increase the projected figure by an extra 10,000 by 2030 is an incredible leap to make in a very short space of time. There are so many aspects to feed into that as well. There needs to be investment in Irish Water, the grid and transport infrastructure. We also need people to build those extra houses. It is probably a matter for the Climate Change Advisory Council but there are considerable challenges there. It is easy to pick a figure based on research showing expected population growth, household occupancy rates, obsolescence rates and so on and say this is the figure the computer will spit out based on the evidence. However, it is about trying to construct those units in the right places. Building apartments is very expensive and we need 200,000 of them by 2030. It is a massive challenge. Maybe the right way to wrap up this session is to say it is not as straightforward as people make it out to be.