Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

That report was issued at Christmas, is being worked on and will be considered by the Cabinet. We have seen the NESC recommendations. Obviously if the number of social housing units were to increase, output would need to increase considerably. We have some additional funds in 2005 and I believe we will be able to commence building 6,000 local authority houses this year. However, we await the Cabinet's decision on the report. Obviously, the recommended increase would have to be rolled out over a number of years as it would be impossible to build all these houses in one year. Local authorities have presented their action plans for a five-year period and we have asked them to proceed with them and fast-track them.

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