Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Deputy's remarks. This is something we have discussed over a number of years. We have a problem in that a number of years ago we were building as many as 90,000 units, many of which were in the wrong places. That level fell dramatically after the crash. The critical way to resolve this crisis is for the construction industry, in particular, to return a rate of house building of 25,000 to 30,000 units a year, rising to twice that. We all know people who are having enormous difficulties at the moment. We also have a situation whereby when someone leaves a lovely home and moves to smaller accommodation when they are retired or widowed, the local authority pulls the house apart and puts up steel shutters. There it then sits. We are actually losing supply through the actions of some local authorities. I am more familiar with my own local authority in Fingal and Deputy Ó Snodaigh's in the city than I am with Deputy Boyd Barrett's. It is an issue of supply, however, and that issue will only be solved by getting the construction industry working again and developing public housing programmes through housing associations and local authorities. We are agreed on that as the ultimate response. Driving rents up is not necessarily the proper response.

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