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

I thank the Deputy. I tried my best to answer her question earlier. The Minister, Deputy Eogahn Murphy, has been to Vienna and knows it well. That is one of the reasons he has been driving forward the cost rental model as part of the solution to our housing shortage. To resolve the housing crisis, we need houses of all sorts. We need houses built by developers for young people to buy or for people to upgrade to who want larger homes. We need houses that might be bought by landlords to rent to people who need to rent for one reason or another. We need social housing built by public bodies. As I said to the Deputy, more than 4,000 public homes were built last year by local authorities and affordable housing bodies. Along with leasing, direct purchase and developers, almost 8,000 homes were added to our social housing stock last year. When is the last time that was done? The solution must be housing of all forms because people need housing of all different times. Cost rental is absolutely part of that picture.

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