Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy well knows, the Government, through local authorities, approved housing bodies and the Land Development Agency, LDA, is embarking on the largest public house-building programme that this State has seen, and rightly so. The Deputy was correct in his outline of the scale of the challenge, which is most acute in Dublin but is present elsewhere around the country as well. For the reasons the Deputy raised, the Government introduced a cost-of-living budget. We are reducing childcare costs by a quarter next year, continuing for another year with the 20% reduction in public transport fares and the 50% reduction for young people, eliminating inpatient hospital charges across the healthcare system, reducing education costs at primary level, and increasing Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grants at third level.

The Deputy is right about much of this coming back to housing. That is why we are focused on delivering on the house-building programme. Was it the Deputy's suggestion that the State step in to buy completed developments or individual units? He might wish to elaborate.

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