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

I thank the Deputies for raising those issues in the broad context of the economy. There were quite a number on housing and energy.

In the first instance, the Housing for All strategy has a suite of measures, not one set of measures. There is a very strong focus on social housing and a target for 2022 of 9,000, with the aim of getting to approximately 10,000 per annum over the next five years and beyond. There are further targets for affordable housing, cost rental and private housing. As regards LIHAF funding, the LIHAF scheme has been in place for quite some time. I do not have the specifics in respect of the individual local authority and its relationship with the development companies to which Deputy Boyd Barrett referred, but I will talk to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage about the two specific cases mentioned. Suffice to say that in certain areas LIHAF funding has been important for getting construction going and getting projects off the ground. We need to build far more houses than we are currently building. It is as simple as that. We are simply not building enough houses, irrespective of the type of house, for a population of 5 million people.

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