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

We need to do everything possible to accelerate the number of new homes being built. As I said earlier, it is accelerating. Some 25,000 new homes were built in the past 12 months, 35,000 are under construction and 45,000 are going through planning. One can really see that pipeline coming through. It took us a while to get there, and we are still only getting there, but it is coming through. There are more things that need to be done to speed it up. The Minister of State, Deputy Burke, and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, are working on reforms to our planning laws because often it is planning issues that delay the construction of new homes. They plan to bring in statutory timelines for An Bord Pleanála so that decisions do not get stuck in An Bord Pleanála for too long. They will also seek to change some of the rules around judicial reviews so that more important housing developments and infrastructure developments do not get caught up in the courts for too long.

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