Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

While I take the Deputy's point, it is important to be realistic. While we are going to revise our social housing build targets, even if we were to build the number of social houses the all-party committee report has asked for, it still would not be anywhere near 70% of total housing output. We need to build as many social houses as feasible, given what can be funded and built through local authorities and approved housing bodies between now and 2020 or 2021, which is the kind of timeframe we are trying to plan for. We will also need to rely on the private sector to deliver the majority of houses, some for the rented sector, and some of the rented sector will have a social housing element, whether by way of HAP, rental allowance or rent supplement. This suits some people, such as those who may be in one place for a short period. The HAP scheme allows people to get back into the workforce and increase their incomes.

I agree that we need to ramp up, prepare for, fund and deliver more social housing in an integrated way within communities, which we are going to try to do. However, there is a limit to the scale of the build programme. We will also need to rely on very significant private sector investment to ensure we have balanced development over the next five to ten years, which we are trying to achieve.

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