Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We need to give local authorities the capacity to deal with this and get housing schemes under way. We also need to re-examine the cost of supplying houses. I am not an expert but builders have told me that the initial outlay before a block is even laid is phenomenal. That is why we are not seeing the surge in the private sector building that we need. We need the private sector to build private houses as well as social housing schemes.

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