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

I have made it very clear, and I will say it again, that housing is the single most important social issue facing our society and country. In the past two years we have dedicated unprecedented financial resources to deal with housing. The fundamental approach has to be to increase supply. We have had to deal with Covid-19 and two lockdowns, which hit construction hard. We then had an exponential increase in prices brought about by the war in Ukraine and an inflationary cycle, all of which has dented confidence in builders and so on in terms of certainty for the future. We intervened very quickly in respect of public contracts and tendering to enable builders to have more confidence in tenders in order to try to stabilise the situation. That is the reality so far.

We will meet the target of about 25,000 houses his year, but we need far more than that. Supply is key. That means all of us have to be very focused on making sure all the projects that are developed, designed and brought to the planning stage are allowed through, unless they are horrendous altogether. By and large, we do not have the luxury of opposing projects because of their mix. The Deputy may not like private housing being mixed with sociable or affordable housing on public lands. In my view, we have to get houses built at a far faster rate than we are currently getting them built. There are issues we will deal with, such as the review of the planning code to make sure it is more streamlined and can facilitate not just housing but also infrastructure projects.

The State is buying properties that have been sold by landlords, where we have tenants on HAP or RAS. The Minister has made it very clear to local authority managers that they may buy houses or apartments that are being sold and which are occupied by people on RAS or HAP. That funding is there for local authorities to use. Local authorities have to have some discretion. That is only sensible.

Also, 18,390 new social housing units have been added to the social housing stock under this Government up to quarter 2 of 2022. That includes 11,301 new builds. In addition to that, 6,000 social homes were brought back into us through the voids programme. Such houses were derelict or not refurbished and we moved very quickly to bring them back into the system. The same will happen with close to a further 2,500 homes in 2022. The State is the biggest actor in the housing market right now. It is intervening across the board.

The Deputy has asked for a national construction company.

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