Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

That is all bluff and bluster. The Minister should consider the hard figures. The Government committed to producing almost 7,000 social housing units and 4,000 affordable housing units, but it has achieved less than half of that target. All this talk about what will happen in the years 2007 to 2013 does not butter the parsnips for people who are waiting for housing but find that, as the Central Bank has told us, half of them cannot afford it and that they are being squeezed out of the first-time buyer new housing market as they are replaced by investors, which has been demonstrated.

That is the reality on the ground. There is no point going to the word processor and reading out scripts which are delivered to the Minister's desk by I know not whom. The Minister should take a look at the reality around him. Perhaps the situation is different in Offaly from that in Dublin but this is the reality for people in Dublin. They cannot afford housing and the promise of affordable housing is not being delivered.

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