Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Housing for All strategy is the right approach and it is starting to deliver results. In the first quarter of this year, my understanding is that some 6,000 houses were completed, built and delivered. In the year to February of the previous year, there were 35,000 commencements. It is not enough and we need to get better-balanced regional development to get more housing in other parts of the country than the east but it is working. We have some control over it because it is State led. We are putting in significant resources and giving real direction to councils and developers throughout the country.

It is at a critical moment in time. Most of the councils are in the middle of their development plans. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae will know that, as I am sure it is the same in Kerry as everywhere else. I stand up in this process for the Office of the Planning Regulator because his office has the right vision and the job to guide those councils to make sure we do not free fall where every council is trying to get as much zoned land as possible. Instead, we need to be strategic and use sticks as well as carrots to make sure that idle land and vacant sites are developed. That is what we will do.

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