Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Department, the Minister and I are in touch with every local authority on a weekly, if not daily, basis at this stage. The idea behind having an action plan is to drive change. We recognise that the financial and human resources were not there in recent years in order to drive the kind of change that is needed. Galway City Council is in a position to increase its numbers. Its previous target was 518 units by 2017 across a range of schemes. It could choose which ones suited its needs. It is doing that and is well on target. We have told it in the past couple of weeks to acquire any houses it can before the end of this year. Every local authority has been given the same instruction: spend the money to acquire houses. It is not the easiest solution for Galway, although it did avail of it in recent years. However, there is pressure in Galway now in the context of housing There is a range of schemes available and the council has approached this very well in various ways. For the past couple of years, it was not just a case of building houses but also of acquiring or leasing them. The council is on target but that target will be increased, and rightly so, because there is increased funding available.

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