Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Does the Minister accept that the refusal of the Government to build social housing has a direct impact on the homeless numbers? Given the scarcity of private rented accommodation in Dublin city in particular at the moment, rents are increasing and the number of units available is going to fall. We are not going to see a serious number of new units coming on the market in the near future because many of them have not even been started and there is not yet an appetite among the developers to build much, so this problem will increase.

With regard to NAMA, the Minister referred to the 4,000 units that were originally ear-marked. This is a body that has been in place for a few years. Does he agree that the lack of transparency in how NAMA works does not help matters and that things might move more swiftly if we could actually see what NAMA is doing?

See this speech in context