Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

-----local authority units have been brought back into use because that is all we could afford. As soon as we could afford to start construction of local authority houses again, we began and the current Government has continued this, although I have many negative things to say about the speed at which that is happening.

The affordable housing scheme was stood down because all houses were affordable at that time. Deputy Darragh O'Brien admits that in his motion where he states: "Dublin’s residential property prices have increased 90.6% from their February 2012 low". They were at a low in 2012 and that is why the affordable housing scheme was stood down. Nobody was building. Let us be realistic: the Minister said the average price of a house in 2012 was €203,000 and Fianna Fáil is trying to reinvent history by somehow trying to make a comparison with 2011, as if the economy was the same in 2011 as it is now. A great deal of work had to be done to bring the economy back. Housing is playing catch-up and that needs to speed up.

The Government's response is too slow. It needs to move quickly. We keep hearing about schemes coming. We have called again and again for a proper affordable housing scheme and for the land owned by the State, most of which is owned by local authorities, to be used for social and affordable housing, not for market housing.

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