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

Of course any broad assessment of statistics and drawing conclusions from it will hide tragic cases and inequality in certain sectors. It is also worth saying that statistics do not lie. We have made extraordinary progress in this country since 2012. It is important to recognise this. Of course we need to focus on things we have not done yet but if we look at the CSO figures in the survey on income and living conditions and the statistics from 2013 to 2018, inclusive, we see genuine progress in reducing poverty levels, reducing deprivation levels, increasing nominal income and a reduced number of people at risk of poverty. This is true. It is progress and it should be recognised.

We have seen huge numbers of people being taken out of the risks and pressures of being unemployed. The figure has fallen from 15% unemployment to below 5% unemployment. During that period, the Government continued to increase the rates of minimum wage to try to make sure that as the country can afford it everybody benefits from a rising tide. This is what we have been trying to do.

This does not suggest we do not still have significant challenges and housing is at the heart of this, in terms of ensuring we facilitate enough homes being built at affordable prices for people to be able to access them, and for those who cannot afford to buy their own homes or rent their own properties that the State can intervene to support them in having a home of their own. We are doing this. We are not where we need to be yet. We need to complete approximately 35,000 housing units a year in Ireland. This year, the figure will be approximately 22,000. We are still increasing our output by more than 25% a year, which is significant. This year, as we have said over again, we will add an extra 10,000 social housing units to the social housing stock.

If we take my city as an example, in Cork in 2014 there was one social house under construction for Cork City Council. There are currently 1,000 on site under construction. This is the change we are making and this is the pace that needs to continue for the next few years to make sure we get up to providing at least 12,000 extra social housing units a year and we provide thousands of affordable houses and cost rental and increase the housing output so the people to whom the Deputy referred who are, at the moment, in very pressurised and difficult conditions, with some of them in emergency accommodation, can get into homes of their own.

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