Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Likewise, people say we do not have good regulation for building in Ireland. I keep saying we have powerful regulation for building in Ireland but we do not enforce it. The lack of enforcement is killing us and is having a big impact on the quality of the units that are delivered.

The Minister referred to the different supply but I believe he is missing the point. He is talking about the short term and he said it is impossible to build social houses overnight. However, in the long term we should be looking at having more of the social housing stock built by local authorities.

The Minister spoke about the three areas of social, private and affordable rental. What about affordable private? Getting NAMA to do deals with Cairn Homes, Hines and those fellows means we are looking at units coming in at more than €300,000. With affordable private, where the State is involved directly, they will be supplied at €200,000 per unit on State land. I do not understand why the Government does not take that on board and move in that direction.

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