Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----and we are on track for more than 6,000 this year. I have shown the Deputies and, more important, the people at home, who do not want to see Sinn Féin playing politics with a crisis, how we are continuing to make progress. The Deputy asked how we are going to fix it. I will tell her how we will do it. We are going to deliver record supply this year. Already this year we have seen more than 12,000 homes commenced. Most people in this country welcome that, but it seems to upset the Deputy, and she has probably objected to a fair few. This year, 12,000 homes have already been commenced. That is a good thing. It is a 60% increase on the previous year. Surely the Deputies would welcome that. This, coupled with schemes Sinn Féin opposes that help people buy their own home, keeping them in place, increasing our houses targets as we go through the year, delivering more supply and increasing affordable home delivery, is how we make a real difference, not just coming in here identifying the problem and offering no real solutions beyond rhetoric.

See this speech in context