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

It is absolutely our intention to use local authorities more into the future than we have done in the past. As the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has just informed me, the number of houses built by local authorities this year will be 2,400. That is four times as many as they built two years ago. I appreciate that is coming from a very low base but to increase the number of local authority houses being built fourfold in two years is significant. We will increase it again next year by another 50% - to approximately 3,800 - so we will ramp up the amount of housing built by local authorities. Yesterday, the Deputy will have seen on the news that not too far from here, near the Grand Canal in Charlemont Place, the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, doing exactly what he said he should do, namely, topping out a new mixed-use development that has commercial-----

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