Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The strategy statement will be a strategy statement for the Department of the Taoiseach. As there is a new Minister in the Custom House, there will also need to be a new strategy statement for the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government. I imagine that will be the statement which will deal with and answer some of the questions the Deputy has raised. The Rebuilding Ireland strategy is Government policy. It is being implemented. As the Deputy will know, approximately 2,000 social houses are at various stages of construction or planning. That is a significant change compared to where were last year and we know that planning starts and planning applications have increased considerable as well. We are seeing definite increased activity in terms of housing supply, but we are still obviously very much further behind where we need to be in terms of supply. The Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, is reviewing the strategy in full. Part of it, as the Deputy will know, involves an increase by one third in our social housing stock. Perhaps that is not enough but it is significant that we are going to increase our social housing stock by one third. It is a reversal of the policy in the past which was to reduce the social housing stock and sell it off. We are committed in the plan to increase it considerably but other measures need to be examined as well. There is a review of the first-time buyer's grant, of which the Deputy will be aware. Consideration is being given to a vacant homes strategy and taking action to tax homes that have been vacant for long periods of time in places of high demand, or also incentivising and encouraging people to make homes available for habitation.

In the context of the budget, we will need to look at the private rented sector to see if there are ways we can encourage people to continue to rent their properties or move into the private rental market if they are not doing so already.

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