Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not know where the Deputy gets her information from. There is not a week that passes that she does not try to put some words into my mouth. I have never said I would take ownership of housing. I have never made that statement. I am the Head of Government and the Taoiseach. I take leadership of the Government and work with Ministers on every matter. I am working closely with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, on this. It is a priority for the Government. The suggestion that I was somehow going to take ownership of it or take it off the Minister is simply not the case. It is one of many examples - I do not know how many - where I have been misquoted or misrepresented by the Deputy. It is not honest politics to engage in that.

The housing budget this year is €4.5 billion, which is the highest ever. We spent more on housing last year than any year in history. The reason for the underspend is that we are struggling to spend the huge budgets we are allocating to housing. We are working on actions this year to reallocate money earlier within housing to make sure it gets spent.

Let there be no doubt that there is no lack of money, of political will or of care, concern and compassion when it comes to dealing with the housing crisis. The constraints are other ones and perhaps I can go into them another time.

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