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

There is no question that progress is being made right across the country in every local authority area, in all 26 counties of the Republic. We are acutely aware that we need to do a lot more but there has been a step change in housing delivery under this Government. About 40% to 50% of the homes that will be delivered this year will be backed by this Government, be they social or affordable homes or assisted through the help to buy grant. The State is leading by example here. Looking at the numbers, 31,500 homes have been completed in the year to September and the third quarter of this year is the third quarter in a row where rolling 12-month completions have surpassed 30,000. That is significant progress. People know what the issues were, particularly through Covid. Others want to forget that we had two construction shutdowns. For public safety reasons we had to close sites. Most sites were closed. We are catching up on that now.

I have had the pleasure of visiting the local authority in Carlow a number of times with the Deputy. Colleagues there are doing a really good job. Another thing we have done is provide the land acquisition fund-----

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