Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am projecting that we will reach approximately 70% of the target but it could be higher. I am giving the Deputy the information to the best of my knowledge. Obviously, a large number of people are doing intense work to ensure we catch up. I visited a number of the sites in question. Yesterday, for example, I was on the site on the Enniskerry Road in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown which shut down, even though it was a public site, and it took ten weeks to get it up and running to full capacity. We should remember that a productivity on a number of those sites decreased before the official shutdown in March because people were moving off site.

I will make an assessment of the housing completion figures when we get to the end of the year. We have set a very exacting target for next year of 12,750 completions, of which 9,500 will be new builds. Leasing will form part of that, as will a move away from acquisition. Allowing for only 800 acquisitions next year, we need that flexibility for different types of housing, such as adapted housing and larger houses.

I will report progress to the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage and to Deputies in the House. We are projecting completions to exceed 70% of the target for the year. We will assess housing completions by the end of the year and see how we are doing.

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