Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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In terms of whether it has impacted, the answer is no. We continue to increase the number of places we are providing. Last year we provided 22,288 places, so when compared with the previous year's 19,300 places, we increased the number of places by 3,000 in the year. It is becoming more expensive, both due to building costs and site costs, but we are getting additional budget to respond to population pressures. Nonetheless, this does inhibit our ability to do other things, which is just the way it is.

There has been a very significant reduction in the number of prefabs. In December 2011, there were 1,525 rented prefabs and that figure dropped to 950 in December 2016. As part of the six-year capital plan, there is a programme to unwind that and to move on. That will start in 2019, so it is further down the road.

The devolved building programme is still very much alive and well, with 182 projects last year and 179 the previous year. It is still there and there is also the new model of rapid build, so there is an effort to speed up that process and different models are being tried out to deal with that.