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

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and for the constructive manner in which he has approached it. From what the Deputy has outlined, I have suggested to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, that he should go up to County Louth for the weekend, where the Deputy could take him around to a few more sites. The Deputy's points are well made.

Housing is the biggest issue facing us as a society and we have to facilitate all construction types. We have to reduce and stop objecting left, right and centre to various projects that are coming forward because the scale of the housing need is such that we have to get progress on planning permissions and on housing projects that are well designed. There have been too many objections over recent years - there is no point in saying otherwise - and these are objections which do not match the crisis. Everybody needs a mindset change in respect of the enormousness of the challenge facing us in housing, the war on Ukraine, on migration generally, and on those accessing emergency accommodation. The scale of this is quite enormous.

The Deputy's point on voids is well made. Approximately 7,000 voids have been brought back into use in the two years since the Government came into office. The Minister has given particular attention to ensuring houses are not left idle for any unreasonable length of time and that local authorities get in there - we have provided the funding - and get those houses back into use. Given the current crisis, it is not good enough that any house would be left void for any period of time.

Modular or rapid-build housing, which is the term I prefer, because these are good, high quality houses with a significant cost per unit, will have to form part of the wider housing building programme we have into the future. The companies the Deputy is talking about require certainty over a reasonable period of time in terms of the volumes that need to be constructed. In addition to our conventionally built houses, we need more rapid-build and more timber-framed homes also. We as a country are unusually low in percentage terms in timber-framed homes compared with other countries like Scotland. We are therefore developing plans to get additional rapid-build homes over and above the 700 we have already identified in respect of the Ukrainian situation and so that these type homes would be used more broadly. Again, the capacity exists in the country to do what the Deputy is proposing in respect of rapid-build homes. Other countries are also doing that and it is something we can do.

If we get the first projects off the ground, people will develop more confidence in this form of housing. That is why I am anxious, if I can, to get up to see the company and the areas Deputy Fitzpatrick has identified. If I cannot, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, will certainly do so. If there is a person who can provide 500 houses on a particular site, we should facilitate him or her and enable that project to be accelerated as quickly as possible because there is great need out there.

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