Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As I have said many times before, if we had the capital, we would all like a much larger social housing programme. While we have some commenced mainstream social housing construction, we are exploring whether we can introduce more substantial building programmes that would be off the Government’s balance sheet because we are still constrained by certain fiscal requirements which we, unfortunately, cannot get around. In the meantime, wherever else I can get funding, be it through stimulus or other programmes, we will construct as many houses as we possibly can. Many of the 1,450 on the waiting list in County Laois are on rent supplement and will be transferring to the housing assistance payment in the near future when the required legislation is through and the payment is rolled out across the country. Many of those on the housing list are getting support from the State but, obviously, we want to provide as many social housing units as we can. We have fiscal constraints but we are using every possible measure to find funding for social housing. We will continue to explore those avenues.

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