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

Other parties originally said we should do it until Christmas week. Then they said until the end of January, and now there is a new iteration. In addition, I made the point earlier that I believe in building social housing. I am back in government two and a half years and 20,000 social homes have been added to the social housing stock since the Government was formed. I do not believe in an overreliance on the housing assistance payment. We need to build. The approved housing bodies have done a significantly good job in completing projects. In respect of homelessness and the Housing First strategy, many homeless organisations, such as Simon and the Peter McVerry Trust, came to us, some years back admittedly, and said we needed to change. The numbers in Housing First have expanded very considerably with very good results with regard to retention and people staying on. What is key now is that the measures provided for are effective in preventing homelessness in the very difficult situation as the eviction ban is lifted. I accept this point and that is what we are working on and focused on.

See this speech in context