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

I thank Deputies for their questions. I will give the best answers I can but as some of the questions are quite detailed and technical, they would be probably best answered by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, or the Minister of State, Deputy Kieran O'Donnell. If I do not answer them, I will make sure a more detailed response is provided to the Deputies in writing.

Deputy Durkan asked about the serviced sites in towns and villages. I will definitely follow up on that. We have already approved, in principle, a scheme to service sites in our towns and villages that people could then use to build a home. There are lots of advantages in that, not least that people would be able to get their first home or a new home for their families. It also reduces the pressure for once-off rural housing, which is also a benefit. From talking with councillors around the country, I get the sense that this is just not happening in practice. We need to work out why that is and I will talk to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, about it.

I was asked to act as Taoiseach on housing. I am very much acting as Taoiseach on housing. When I first entered Government, we were building 7,000 houses per year and when I first became Taoiseach, the figure was 14,000 houses per year. Now, it is 30,000. I know that is not enough-----

See this speech in context