Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Under the development plan over the next seven years we intend to meet the needs of some 100,000 households in all of these categories. Housing remains a priority of our capital investment programme. I believe €1.5 billion this year and commensurate money next year is an indication of our determination in not only working with the industry, but also bringing about certain changes in how schemes operate, to provide the greatest level of choice so that social housing is not just a question of waiting lists for local authority builds, but is also using the capacity in the private sector through these schemes for people on social and affordable housing lists to access homes more quickly than would otherwise be the case.

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