Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In time, the policy changes we have made as a Government will be highly effective. I share Deputy Broughan's concerns about the number of people who are homeless today. That number is a reminder of the job that we need to do. I will not accept, however, the pretence offered by Deputy Broughan and others that we do not have a pipeline of delivery for social housing because that is simply not true. We must consider what has been delivered in recent years.

In 2016, adding local authority and approved housing body delivery of new builds together, the total was only 657 social housing units. Last year that figure jumped to just under 2,300 units. The figure for this year will be significantly higher again as will the figure for the following year. We are going to get to a point where we are delivering between 7,000 and 10,000 social houses per year. The funding is in place and the delivery pipeline exists now. The reason I am so critical of Deputy Broughan on this issue is that the information is available and published. It is possible now to see what each individual local authority is committing to this year.

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