Ms Michelle Murphy:

I will make a final comment on housing because I know that Deputy Durkan was on the special committee looking at the housing action plan and this issue came up at it. It is an issue of supply. We made numerous proposals to that committee which are on the record. Social housing supply is the key to taking people out of the private rented sector, which will bring down rents. We also need to build houses for people. Supply will not be delivered overnight, but the situation we are in at present is such that homelessness is increasing at an ongoing rate. The pressure that rents are putting, and will continue to put, on wages, in particular in urban centres, is also huge. This has an impact on people on the average wage trying to afford their housing costs. Invoking some of the European clauses, as the Minister did in the action plan in terms of looking at structural reform clause, and pushing for flexibility and social investment would be a means of at least increasing investment in social housing.

I refer to the question of prioritising areas for funding in education now that there are some resources available, and I think that goes across the board. That is one of the tasks facing the current Dáil. When there are resources available, how are these prioritised? In education, we would say life-long learning is one area to prioritise because of its future impact.