Maria McCormack (Sinn Fein)

I thank everybody for coming in. I am delighted we get to have a session solely on affordable housing because this is the biggest crisis we have at the moment. If you are in a rural community like Laois, it is nearly non-existent.

I have two questions. First, Mr. Taaffe mentioned in his opening statement that out of the 31 local authorities, there are 18 that have been identified as having significant affordability constraints. Eighteen of them were specifically assigned targets. Do the local authorities have any input into these targets or has the CCMA been getting feedback about how low these targets are? I will give Mr. Taaffe an example for Laois. I do not expect him to comment directly on Laois but it is just an example. The target for 2022 was five houses. In 2023 it was seven, it was ten in 2024 and it was eight in 2025. We are going down even though the housing need is going up. In 2026 it is eight. These targets are absolutely ridiculously low. I want to get Mr. Taaffe's feedback on that please.