Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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My next question to both Ministers is on housing. Housing, I believe, is a fundamental issue in regard to our economic performance by virtue of house costs or the proportion of the family income devoted to mortgage repayments or rent payments. I note the five-year plan, and it is positive. Unfortunately, I have been hearing that for the past ten or 15 years. There has always been a plan that would take four or five years. Every time there has been a change of Minister, and Ministers want to progress the issue for the benefit of the country at large, other people have had reasons to say it will take five years to do that.

If it takes so long, then I am concerned we may find ourselves running out of runway. The five years could be up and we still might not have made an impact on this issue. We require hugely accelerated expenditure and delivery in the first of these five years. Can we tell the construction industry we need 70,000 or 80,000 houses in the first year and a similar number in the second year? I ask that because we need to achieve that to break the back of what is a serious national impediment. Can it be done? Can we instruct the construction sector to recruit abroad, or wherever, so that it will be able to put in place a programme capable of delivery on this scale? The longer we go the way we are now, the more expensive it gets. I am not suggesting the Ministers are in any way lethargic. I think the plan is good. However, the first year of the plan is the important bit. How successful are we going to be in delivering on that?