Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I put it to the Minister that the recovery is more apparent than real. Ordinary people do not feel the recovery in their daily lives, in their pockets and in the availability of enough jobs. I put it to the Minister that inner city Dublin needs attention but so too do the suburbs where there is very high unemployment, many problems and a huge housing crisis. A resolution of those problems is required. It is crucial that critical funding is made available. We cannot be convinced by the EU, which has taken so much through forcing the Irish people to take on debts of bondholders and bankers that were not there and then pretending to make up in this particular way.

As a Labour Minister, Deputy Howlin should be concerned by the figures for housing which I read the other day. In the 1970s the State was building between 7,000 and 8,000 local authority houses per year, whereas now the Government is building a few hundred. Could the Minister comment on the matter in terms of the funding that is available?

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