Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Again, I thank the Minister for his response. We have urgent requirements. Everyone agrees about housing. The critical issue having regard to housing development in this country is that it lacks scale. The EIB has very significant resources. None of the local authorities nationally, including the large urban ones, is talking about anything like 1,000 social houses. Everything is well under that, sometimes in the low hundreds, or tens, 20s and 30s. We are not going to be able to address the housing situation unless both affordable and social housing are part of the mix on a scaled basis. We have seen the European Investment Bank have a positive involvement in projects like roads, the DIT and schools bundles, but its average capital spend over the last ten years in Ireland, which has a growing population and an enormous demand in terms of foreign direct investment for public transport and so on, is less than €700 million a year. Has the Minister targeted specific amounts for infrastructure or will it be a case of taking whatever is offered?

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