Dáil debates

Thursday, 1 December 2022

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions

Housing Policy

9:54 am

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have been in all of the 31 local authority areas throughout the country. Let us not catastrophise this with regard to supply. The Deputy cannot just take one figure and say everything is going in a downward trajectory. It is not. We are aware of the challenges which, by the way, are not unique to Ireland. There are the rising cost of funding and inflationary pressures. We saw positive news yesterday on eurozone inflation and Ireland's inflation rate is below this. This is because we have a strong and robust economy with near full employment.

We do have serious challenges in housing and there is no question about this. Housing for All is just over one year old. The first target we set under Housing for All was 24,600 for this year and we will exceed it substantially. I look forward to all Deputies welcoming the fact that supply is increasing. We will deliver more new social homes this year than we have done in decades. This includes affordable homes for the first time in the Deputy's constituency of Meath West. I have been in Meath and I have seen developments being carried out by smaller builders. We absolutely want them involved also. There is no question about that. Housing for All allows this to happen. The modular home delivery for our friends from Ukraine is being managed separately as a specific item. We will be looking at new modern methods of construction and fast tracking planning, and I look forward to the Deputy's support on this, to deliver an additional number of social homes above and beyond the targets we have set for next year.

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