Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

My question is in this group and I thank the Minister for that but mine is a specific question. Has the Minister's attention been drawn to this report? If so, has he read it? If so, does he agree with the recommendation that the Government can afford to borrow and build the necessary housing? That is the specific question, which I ask in the context of a severe housing crisis. Telling me that we have doubled our housing budget has nothing to do with the question that is being asked. If he could, I would ask him to address the question because we have a housing crisis. I come from a city in Galway where people have been on the housing waiting list for 15 years. Only one or two properties are available within the cap of the housing assistance payment, HAP. That payment started off at a very low price when it was brought in by the Labour Party and Fine Gael in 2014 but it has now risen to €1.4 billion. That figure is taken from the ESRI report. Will the Minister deal with the report? There are some points in it that I do not agree with but I am asking for the Minister's viewpoint. Is he aware of the report, what is his opinion on it and what is he going to do about it?

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