Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes. In trying to respond to the kind of issues referred to by the Deputy, we have already decided and made it clear to the relevant Minister, Deputy Coveney, that from the additional resources that we believe will be available to the country for the coming years, we will allocate a large portion to the Department dealing with housing. From the €5.3 billion that should be available in the coming years for additional capital funding, we have already allocated €2.2 billion to housing.

We have done that in recognition of the housing needs to which the Deputy referred. An issue I am very much aware of is the need to ensure developers and local authorities can make use of land they own or planning permissions they already have. A constraint we are seeing of late relates to a failure to ensure roads are built, infrastructure is developed and utilities are put in place, all of which is happening because local authorities do not have sufficient funding. From 1 January, we will have in place a local housing infrastructure fund of €200 million to address that problem. We have already seen a huge amount of interest in that fund.

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