Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

This is the third report on housing that the Minister of State has received during the past year. Before the NESC report there was the report from the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution regarding building land and the Goodbody report on land hoarding. Every time I asked the Minister of State a question about housing during the past year, he replied that he was awaiting the NESC report. He has now received that report and has been reading it since before Christmas.

The requirement for an estimated 73,000 additional social housing units is the recommendation that stands out on any reading. The Minister of State's Department has considered many housing strategies and housing assessments over recent years. Surely it is possible for him to answer the simple question as to whether he accepts this estimate of 73,000 units. It is not a difficult question. That recommendation is contained in the early chapters of the report. Even at his pace of reading, therefore, the Minister of State should have reached that point by now.

See this speech in context