Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would also offer to Deputy Barry that manganese seems to be an issue with water discolouration. Louth County Council and Irish Water have done much work on pilot schemes. Some of my follow-up questions for Uisce Éireann relate specifically to that.

House prices and rents are at record highs. There is a rising market. Analysts are now saying that the rate of house price inflation is set to accelerate even further. This is forcing an entire generation of young people to emigrate. Meanwhile, Government has missed all of its affordable housing targets for the fourth year in a row. Moreover, many of these homes are not affordable. I will talk about Cois Farraige, Blackrock, just outside Dundalk, which is Louth County Council's first scheme in years. A price of €305,000 is certainly not affordable for many people. Only five out of ten offerings were taken up. There were at least 26 applications but most of them did not reach criteria. Louth County Council itself stated there is an issue with the criteria. Can we look at the criteria, the costs and the targets relating to affordable housing? It is not working at this point in time.

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