Micheál Carrigy (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

We will have to wrap this up. I will ask one question myself and cut my own time. I come from Longford. We have been pushing for a large number of years for an affordable scheme. We did not fit all the criteria and figure out a way of working it out yet. On the ground, that was a reality. People were looking for affordable housing. We have the highest percentage of social housing per head in the country. A lot of that is because of that. We now have a scheme in place with the Department but we are just waiting on approval. I am delighted to see that these are turned around fairly quickly. We need to see affordable housing schemes throughout the county and in our regional towns as well, not just in our main county town.

I would like to ask Mr. Taaffe about the use of serviced sites by local authorities.

A number of schemes in Longford town were built 50 years ago as affordable housing under the serviced sites scheme. That is another method of affordability for people but an awful lot of local authorities do not seem to be implementing it, even though we are told the funding is there from the Department. What are Mr. Taaffe's views on the serviced sites scheme for the affordability of housing?