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

Of course there is a connection. We have been saying that for the past two years. That is why many of our plans in Rebuilding Ireland are aimed at bringing the supply of housing back up. Last year, and the Deputy might not like to admit this, there were an additional 7,000 social houses in use through all the schemes. They were not there the year before that. This year again, because the supply of housing is up, there will be almost 8,000 new social houses available through the various schemes. We are making progress but it is not enough. I totally and utterly agree with the Deputy on that but it takes time to get the supply of housing back up. We estimate this year there will be over 20,000 houses in total built in the country. That is our estimate. It could go beyond that. The building sector reckons there will be approximately 23,000 houses. That brings in a new supply of housing which will help deal with all the different housing problems, the cost of rent, the number of houses available and social housing. Supply is key. I am happy to dwell on that in other debates but there is not the time to do it all today. There are measures there and we are working with all the stakeholders, those who own land and those who do not to try to bring forward and activate those sites through various schemes with success in some areas.

I agree that other sites are not being developed but we are dealing with that too. The vacant site levy kicks in this year such that people will be charged for sites that are inactive, this year and next year. On the Deputy's point that we need to utilise public-owned lands, we are doing that. All of the local authorities have brought forward plans on how they propose to use their landbanks, which could be used to deliver approximately 50,000 houses over the years ahead. We will work with and fund the local authorities to ensure those lands are activated and to bring forward a combination of social, affordable and private housing.

Family hubs, which I mentioned earlier, are better accommodation than hotels. Last year, over 4,000 people were found a home and over 1,200 families have left hotels. I agree with the Deputy that there are still far too many people in hotels but we hope that through new initiatives this year we will be able to take people out of them because, I agree, they are not a place to be.

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