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

The houses would be owned by people too. Some 600,000 people own their houses. Another 300,000 have mortgages. This means that 900,000 homes are either owned outright or mortgaged. At least 20% of new homes need to be social or public housing units. We do not have the exact figures yet but we think between 18,000 and 20,000 new homes were built in Ireland last year. That is more than in any year this decade. Approximately 4,500 of those were built by local authorities or approved housing bodies. That does not include acquisitions and leasing, which would bring it to a much higher level. It is over 20%. I do not know when we last had 20% of all new homes being built by public bodies but that is where matters stand. It will take a number of years to catch up.

The capital budget for this year is €7 billion, 25% more than last year. We will need to re-profile €100 million of that. This has not been done yet but we think it will be achieved by deferrals of weeks or months and will not require the outright cancellation of any projects. Savings may arise for reasons outside our control, such as other projects being deferred, not as a result of any Government decision but because of planning issues, judicial reviews and so on. I appreciate that it is causing anxiety and that many people feel the projects they are interested in are being delayed as a consequence of overruns relating to the national children's hospital. That is not the case and we will try to clarify that as soon as possible. I hope that today's decision by Cabinet to go ahead with the N4 to Sligo and the Castlebaldwin to Collooney route is evidence that we are going ahead with these projects and not suspending them.

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