Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is a lot of hand hygiene and a lot of people washing their hands here. Let me assure the Deputy we will not wash our hands of our responsibility to deliver for the people of Galway in terms of housing supply. I am pleased with the progress we are making on social housing, as Deputy Canney has acknowledged. I also acknowledge that we need to do more on this. We continue to be ambitious with regard to social and affordable housing. There are also a hell of a lot of people in this country who want to buy their own homes. There are a hell of a lot of parents who want to see their adult children buy their own homes. We have a responsibility to listen to communities and builders and put schemes in place. There are reasons to be encouraged by housing supply when we see almost 33,000 new homes built last year alone, exceeding the target.

Let me be absolutely clear - the Government intends to lift the scale of its ambition in terms of housing supply. We will publish draft housing targets in the summer and finalised targets in the autumn. As part of realising and reaching those targets, we will have to work with the likes of the Galway Housing Task Force to see how, county by county, we can raise the scale of ambition.

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