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

The Minister has introduced rent controls in given areas and looked after people who were vulnerable in respect of rent. He has introduced new legislation to restrict rent increases. The Deputy knows that. However, he summed it up himself. It is not about resources. Of course, resources matter. The Deputy is going on about a billion here and a billion there, but my point is that it is about delivery. That will be the big challenge. The Deputy refers to another €4 billion or whatever, but it is about getting the capacity into the system to build more houses than we are currently building. What is key is that local authorities will have the capacity to build more social houses because they will have the resources to do so. That funding will be allocated to local authorities. The challenge for local authorities will be to get those houses built to the targets we want. It is the easiest thing in the world for the Deputy to say we should do 20,000 next year.

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