Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for that one question with different parts, which I will address in my answer. I was able to speak to this issue this morning because we were announcing new capital funding of €30 million for Dublin Simon to help with a new detoxification facility on Usher's Island. The reason we can provide that funding is both because of the priority we have made of housing and because the different things the Government is doing in the economy enable it to spend that funding in areas that need such support.

Rents in Dublin are too high. People cannot afford the rents that they are being charged. That is precisely why this House introduced new laws earlier this year, which the RTB has stated it is now implementing, which is welcome. However, there is more that we could do, particularly on affordable home ownership and continuing the supports that we have.

In relation to the ESRI projections, these have now been revised in line with the Government's own projections on housing. I welcome that those two figures - those of the Government and those of the ESRI - are in line.

As for vacancy, there are too many sites still vacant. That is why we introduced the vacant site levy. That is having some impact but we are currently looking at ways to see if it can have more. I can speak about that next month.

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