Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I note the Central Statistics Office housing figures came out earlier today. They showed that 20,000 new homes were built in Ireland last year. That was not as many as we needed but it was a reasonable performance, given that construction was shut down for a long period last year. We expect that figure will go well above 20,000 this year.

We know that we need more homes of all types in Ireland. We need large family homes, three-bed, two-bed and one-bed homes. The greatest shortage and need is for one-bed homes. That is why we need to make sure we build a decent proportion of them.

Unfortunately, there are huge numbers of objections to planning applications for new housing in this city and country, for almost any reason. There are also a considerable number of judicial reviews. The Attorney General and the relevant Minister are working on reforms to our planning legislation to ensure it is not so easy for people to hold up necessary housing developments for so long.

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