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

We all recognise that the pressures on the housing market will not be solved by one silver bullet. It is about a combination of lots of solutions which are tailored for different sectors and circumstances. We have changing demographics in Ireland and over the next ten to 20 years, we will see a doubling of the number of people who are 65 years of age and over. That will place major pressures on the kinds of housing we need to design into the future. The approach we have taken to date to the potential of rural towns and villages includes the announcement of a €1 billion fund for rural regeneration. Every six to 12 months, a new round of funding is made available to towns and villages to allow them to tailor their own solutions from the ground up. The Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has sent me across a note to the effect that the Department is currently reviewing how best to facilitate people who want to move from areas with long housing lists and severe housing pressures to other parts of the country where the opposite may be the case. Those areas may wish to see increases in population and have vacant properties available to facilitate that. I will ask the Minister to send Deputy Harty a briefing note on that.

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