Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In 2014 some 5,000 additional social housing units will be provided. Additional funding has been provided in the budget to recommence housing construction. It is intended that, as the finances of the country improve, we will improve on this. In addition to the construction of houses, we have committed to the upgrading of the energy efficiency of existing local authority dwellings. Some 25,000 local authority dwellings will be affected by the measure and upgraded under the programme. Of these, some 4,000 have been upgraded in the first four months of the programme. We will continue with that process. We are very much aware of the number of people on housing lists and their housing needs. Now that we have stabilised the country's finances and are moving out of the bailout programme, we have signalled clearly in the budget that social housing provision is an issue we will continue to address.

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