Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----7,000 new social houses that were not there last year but which are in use this year. Some 25,000 households who were not in a house last year are in a social house this year. In the year ahead, there will be more than 8,000 new social houses available to the local authorities that were not there two years ago. Despite all the Deputy's complaining, we are making progress. We all accept it is not enough today to solve the housing crisis but adding thousands of houses every year is the only way we are going to solve that housing crisis. Despite what the Deputy would like us to do, we are making progress.

The discussion today is about making plans for the future. It is, of course, a matter for the Government and the relevant Ministers, in this case Deputies Donohoe and Murphy, to reflect on the most appropriate and effective structures to deliver on our ambitious plans in Ireland 2040. Again, it is about where we build the next 500,000 homes, where we locate people and how we compact our cities and ensure rural Ireland's towns and villages have life brought back into them. That is what it is about.

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