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

I agree we need to build thousands of social housing units, and we will do so, but it does not happen overnight. People seem to think we can turn away from a functioning rental market and just build thousands of social housing units overnight at the wave of a hand. This is just not the way it works. We are building capacity in the system to build tens of thousands of social housing units over time, but we cannot do it overnight. We must have a property sector with a balance between a functioning private rental market, where many people are happy to reside if they can get affordable rent. We need to work towards this to ensure that people who want to buy houses are able to afford to do so and live in close proximity to where they want to live and that those who need State intervention through social housing are able to access social housing in a reasonable timeframe. We are working towards all of these aims.

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