Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The reason we were doing so was that people were not working and were living in poverty, which they are not living in today. We are now building four times more houses than in the 1970s. Through a range of schemes, including social and affordable housing schemes, the shared ownership scheme and the Part V scheme, people are able to purchase their own homes even when they are on lower incomes. That has been proved in the figures each year.

This year we will spend €2 billion on social housing for those people who totally depend on it. That is a sizeable support of taxpayers' money to social housing which will help the needs of 14,000 households. The figure over the three-year period, as set out by the Minister, is of the order of 15,000 units of affordable housing between 2006 and 2008. These are substantial figures.

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