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

While I welcome the very late publication of revised targets, I regret the fact they are being published so late. It is just not good policy-making to set targets that are too low for too long and then at the eleventh hour, one month before many offices will close for Christmas, to bring in new targets, especially when they are not being funded adequately. I have serious concerns about the lateness of the setting of the new targets.

I regularly speak with those in the construction industry who want to be part of a building programme that lifts people out of homelessness and ensures a more ambitious and urgent delivery of homes but they are fundamentally stymied in achieving that ambition because the Government has simply failed to support them adequately until now. Now, on the week the Dáil is apparently to be dissolved, we see those targets finally being raised. For more than one year, we in the Labour Party have consistently been saying that the targets need to be in the vicinity of 50,000 new builds per year in order to meet the scale of demand. That is what we are hearing every day in our communities and I know the Taoiseach is hearing it too. It is simply too late now to be setting those revised targets with any prospect of making real change in the lifetime of this Government. It is important the Taoiseach acknowledges that at this point for those who are in homelessness and for those who are seeking to achieve their own home.

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