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

Over the summer, new grim records were broken in July's homelessness figures. We see now 4,401 children left without a home, a really shameful figure, and we have learned that rents have increased by nearly 27% over the three years since the Government's Housing for All policy was launched. The Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, tells us that more than 4,000 eviction notices were served between April and June, and all of us are hearing all the time from families and individuals who are left without a home or who are in fear of eviction. We all know that, crucially, the State needs to get back building, delivering social and affordable homes. The Taoiseach said earlier that the Government is on track, he believes, to deliver 40,000 homes this year but that is contradicted, as we know, by the Central Bank's projections. It says the figure will be just 32,000, well short not only of the Government's own target but of the target the Central Bank says is required, of 52,000 new builds per year between now and 2050 to meet the shortfall that is there.

I have been asking this question for months. When is the Government going to publish its revised housing targets and does it have any chance of meeting that very serious and chronic level of demand?

See this speech in context