John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

——but I may not get an opportunity to do so. If the Members opposite wait, I will get to it in a moment. There was also reference in the motion to the number of affordable houses delivered to date. We should be honest about this issue. Had the Members opposite wanted a proper debate, that was not the way to put forward the motion. When Part V of the Planning and Development Act came into force, everybody knew there was a lead-in time. Planning permissions first had to be granted under the system and then the projects physically delivered.

A few weeks ago representatives from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government appeared before the Committee of Public Accounts and gave their projections, and there is significant growth in those figures. It is easy to be critical and say the Government has not delivered but it is delivering. It is easy to get political mileage——

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