Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

The most important action the Minister and the Government can take is to oversee the construction of social housing by local authorities and approved housing bodies. The President has stated there is a need for a "huge increase in public rental accommodation." The Irish Council for Social Housing is on record as stating, "The over-reliance on the private market to meet social housing demand is unsustainable and ultimately unpredictable." What we need to know now is whether the Government is going to commence, via local authorities, a social housing construction programme and whether it will commit to providing the 10,000 houses the housing advocacy bodies state are required each year in order to address the crisis.

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