Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. We have been working with stakeholders, housing bodies and NGOs who are our partners in the voluntary sector to end the scourge of homelessness. We do not rely on the private sector. This year we will support more than 21,000 new social housing tenancies. We will well outstrip the targets we have for this year. A portion of that will come from housing assistance payments, thereby relying on the private rental market but we will see a dramatic increase in the number of houses built, acquired or long-term leased into social housing stock by the Government. If we look at the last two years of the Rebuilding Ireland action plan, 2020 and 2021, more houses will be built, bought or long-term leased by the State into State stock. We will not be relying on HAP to meet the social housing needs of people who need our help. We are not relying wholly on the private sector. We have a mix of solutions. The most important thing is to get people into secure tenancies and that is what we are doing as a Government.

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