Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Not only is the Minister's response delusional, it is positively Orwellian in its attempt to describe a report that is critical of the Government as somehow endorsing it. In fact, the Minister has provoked the ire of one of the commission members, Mr. Michael O'Flynn, who was on the "Today with Claire Byrne" show last week. Not only has he been deeply disappointed by the Government's response, he suggested that it has insulted the commission by suggesting that recommendations for the radical changes it is proposing are already being done. Maybe the Minister does not understand the recommendation about 20%. The commission is not calling for 20% of private housing to be social and affordable. It is saying it wants 20% of all housing stock to be social and affordable. That would mean, on an annual basis, half of all new homes would have to be social and affordable within the timeline outlined in the report.

Let us be clear. The Minister would not have published this report if it had not been leaked. He sat on the right to housing report for ten months and was forced to publish this report. Specifically, however, will he give me his response to the commission's claim that the housing deficit it outlined was deliberately excluded from the Government's original targets and, as it stands, will be excluded from its current revision because the methodology for the ESRI has not changed?

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