Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

These projects are getting under way and being accelerated. Through a combination of social housing, affordable housing, affordable rental, cost rental, supported rental accommodation and private housing delivery, we need to get to between 40,000 and 50,000 housing units per year. We know that. We need to be above 10,000 social houses per year and there needs to be a significant mix of affordable housing but the statement Deputy Cairns makes that nobody can afford to buy a house, when she knows the stats show 38,000 people have bought their first home in the back of a first-time buyer’s grant I introduced as housing Minister, is misrepresenting the facts. We have real challenges on housing but we are providing real solutions which are accelerating year on year.

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