Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the comments of Deputy Tuffy, which are very much in line with what I have put in place to make affordable housing available for social housing purposes under a number of headings. Following a number of requests from local authorities I have agreed that 200 properties should go into their stock in this way. I have also allowed 1,300 to go into long-term leasing, making a total of 1,500 to people on housing lists.

In April 2009, I issued detailed guidelines to local authorities on what they could do with their affordable homes. We have been successful in that we now have fewer than 1,000 affordable homes on our books as compared to 3,900 previously. The affordable homes partnership has played a part.

See this speech in context