Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am indeed, and I thank the Deputy for his question on this. Today, the Government had a good day in that we took three more concrete actions on the basis of recommendations from the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Brien, to assist with the housing situation. We are expanding the Croí Cónaithe scheme such that more people can avail of the grant to do up vacant homes, extending the rent-a-room scheme to include local authority homes that wish to take in a student, which is a win-win for everybody, and also making sure the State-backed mortgage scheme can be made available if someone wants to buy and do up a home that may be viewed as derelict or unusable at the moment. Those are three concrete steps. We exceeded our targets last year and I believe we will exceed our targets this year. We will also set new targets next year for 2025 on the basis of the census and the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, report.

See this speech in context