Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour)
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The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government made a comment recently about social housing. There appears to be a housing crisis, although it might have different manifestations at some levels. There is a huge demand for residential houses in Dublin, but not enough supply. Students are suffering and families are being made homeless. There are obviously issues with access to finance and so forth, but there was a statement from the Minister last week with regard to something similar to Part V or a reincarnation of that, with perhaps 10% on this occasion. If there was a national policy in respect of future development to retain some of the units for social housing, how would you fit that in? I know it is akin to asking how long is a piece of string, but in your informed view, would you consider that a realistic policy objective?