Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for acknowledging the need to increase housing targets. Indeed, his predecessor also accepted that building targets were too low, but we are still waiting for those increased targets that are so badly needed. More than a year ago, we in Labour said that Ireland would need to see output of 50,000 new builds per year to meet the scale of need. That is now endorsed and confirmed, it appears, by the Housing Commission and the Taoiseach has effectively confirmed it himself. However, we still do not have a timeline from the Taoiseach as to when those revised targets will be published. I accept that none of us on this side of the House have seen the full report yet, but we need to know a timeline for when the Government is proposing to put the recommendations into effect. We need to hear that there is a sense of urgency in taking the emergency action that the commission has said is necessary to address the scale of the housing disaster.

In fairness, we did not know when the Minister for housing had received the report. The Taoiseach has now said it was 8 May, which was 13 days ago.

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