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

I have been very clear, and have repeatedly said in this House, that housing is the single most urgent and important social issue facing our country at this time. Through Housing for All, we have provided action with a wide range of initiatives relating to social housing, homelessness and affordable housing. Access to housing is fundamental to our security, stability, health and progress as a nation; there is no doubt about that. The Government has been in office for two years. We had two lockdowns, unfortunately, which impacted on construction, although we managed to keep quite a number of social housing projects on the go. This year will see - I hope, and we are heading there - a record number of social houses built everywhere in the country, but we need to keep that rate going every year. I cannot comment on individual cases whose detail I am not familiar with but supply is the vital part of this. We need to build more houses of all types as quickly as we possibly can. That is the key intervention.

We have provided the resources. A total of €4 billion per annum will now be provided to enable the construction of social and affordable homes. We have also taken significant action on, for example, voids and on making sure local authority houses bring their voids and empty houses back as quickly as possible.

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