Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, I am allergic to bluster and political rhetoric as well. There is sometimes no shortage of it on Deputy Connolly's side of the House either. Furthermore, I have been committed to public housing all my life. All of my political life I have supported the provision of public housing in whatever capacity I have served, and in building local authority houses. In this Government that was formed in the past ten months there is a very strong commitment to a large social housing programme. The funding has been provided, with €3.3 billion alone provided in this year's budget for housing. The issue now is to get the houses delivered and to get them built and in addition to get affordable housing built. Níl aon amhras ach go bhfuil géarchéim uafásach maidir leis sin. Admhaím é sin. Is é sin an fáth go bhfuil sé ina chéad aidhm ag an Rialtas i bhfad níos mó tithíochta a chur ar fáil ná mar atá againn anois mar níl a dhóthain á tógáil againn faoi láthair. Supply is a key issue. The council in Galway has responsibilities in terms of working towards the creation of a master plan. The whole purpose of the Land Development Agency is to create a facility whereby we can use public land for the provision of housing. Deputy Connolly's view seems to be that it should be 100% public housing. I do not necessarily agree that it should be 100%. I have no issue with mixed development on any housing site, either State-built or State-supported affordable, which should be facilitated on public land. Overall, we need to get more houses built than we are currently building.

Last year about 20,000 houses were built, the majority provided by the State. This year the target was about 25,000, of which 12,750 are to be provided by the Government. There is no great private sector out there at the moment. It seems the majority of private sector housing built last year was stand-alone single units across the country. There is a fundamental issue of getting more houses built overall across the mix between public sector housing, public provision and private sector provision. I do not mean funds or anything like that: I mean in the normal traditional way where houses were built that were affordable for people to buy as well, because I believe in home ownership. I do not know whether Deputy Connolly does, but I believe in home ownership and people's right and aspiration to be able to purchase houses at affordable prices. That is something I support. That is a huge challenge right now. It seems to me the fundamental problem facing the country is one of supply. To that end, the Government is committed to housing being the number one priority as we emerge from Covid-19 and to applying the same type of approach that we applied to Covid to get this housing issue sorted.

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