Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. We are exceeding our targets every year. Every year we are building more houses and we will continue to do that.

The Deputy acknowledges that capacity was a problem. That has been built up. Much work has gone into upskilling and retraining young people into the construction sector and it is working.

I stated clearly that the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is expecting the ESRI research. The Department is expecting that report next month and updated targets will be brought to Government at that stage. No doubt they will be ambitious, because we have exceeded. However, there is no point in setting a target last year that is unrealistic. We set targets and have exceeded them. It is our intention to be ambitious because we all know we need more houses. That is what this Government is committed to doing, namely, providing more houses in order that people can have their own home that they want to buy and live in.

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