Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

There are more like 12,000.

Similarly, we have already committed, in Towards 2016, to work with the social partners on the elimination of people in long-term emergency accommodation by 2010. We have made good progress tackling the many issues of homelessness. An independent review of implementation of the Government's homeless strategies, published earlier this year, acknowledged that "substantial progress has been made across all aspects of homelessness from the provision of housing to health services and reducing rough sleeping".

We all know it is not just about putting a roof over people's heads. If it was, and only required money, it would have been done a long time ago but many people in such circumstances have complex addiction and mental health problems and the involvement of the Department of Health and Children, which spends almost as much as my Department, is vital. We intend to build on this success by now focusing on the development of long-term accommodation, as opposed to emergency accommodation.

I will now turn to the important questions of land for housing and the role of Part V. Part V of the Planning and Development Acts, 2000 to 2006, is a groundbreaking piece of legislation. It is one of the important means of delivering on the housing agenda introduced by the Government, a fact acknowledged by NESC. This legislation provides a constitutionally-proofed framework through which a reasonable and proportionate share of betterment derived from residential zoning and planning decisions is captured for social and affordable housing purposes. I appreciate Deputy Gilmore's proposal but it was difficult to achieve a provision for even 20% with the agreement of the Supreme Court.

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