Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the hecklers rightly point out, there is always more to do and housing is one of those particular areas in which there is very much more to do. The Deputy mentioned a legal right to housing and it is currently being considered by the all-party finance committee. I very much have an open mind on this but as the Deputy rightly indicates, 81 countries not only have a statutory right to housing but they have a constitutional right to housing. In many of those countries there are severe housing crises and very serious problems with housing and homelessness. In some cases they are much worse than what we have here. I am sure that a statutory or constitutional right will not build a house for anyone. We need to build more houses and the solution to the problem is increasing housing supply. In the past year the number of planning permission applications increased by 30%, as did the number of commencement notices; 18,000 new homes have commenced construction in the past year.

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