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

I expect to have a full and wide-ranging debate in the autumn when we bring forward some of the changes. A fair bit of work is required. We have not had a review in this regard for well over ten years. It is long overdue.

We face a major challenge in regard to social housing delivery. We have to be ambitious in terms of delivering them, but we also have to be realistic. I think we are. The Government's housing budget alone is over €3.3 billion. That is significant and we need more direct building of social homes all across the country, including the Deputy's county of Donegal. I did not visit just one development on that day, as he knows; I visited a number of other projects. It was fantastic to see the work the local authority is doing there.

It is a challenge in every county to be able to meet the demand from people on social housing lists. We intend to build 50,000 social homes over the term of this Government and deliver affordable homes for the first time, for rental and purchase. We will come back with the review later this year. That is what I intend to do. We will debate it, and look forward to the Deputy's input.

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