Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ní aontaím in aon chor leis an Teachta as ucht an méid a dúirt sí. Níl aon amhras ach gurb é an t-ábhar is tábhachtaí agus is práinní sa tír seo ná cúrsaí tithíochta. An phríomhaidhm atá againn mar Rialtas ná níos mó tithe a chruthú agus é sin a dhéanamh chomh tapa agus is féidir linn. Is é sin bun agus barr pholasaithe an Rialtais. In the first instance, housing is the number one issue in this country. I made the following comment in the Oval Office in the White House. I said: "The number one issue in Ireland is housing". We have got to build more houses and we have got to build them faster to give the young people of Ireland an opportunity to buy a house or to afford to rent a house. It is a pity the Deputy did not quote that in respect of how I addressed the housing issue in a serious and substantive way when I was asked a question during the press conference in the Oval Office. I have consistently said, during previous Government and in this Government, that this is the number one issue. The Deputy will choose to play politics with it on an ongoing basis. She chose not to go to Washington D.C. That was a big mistake in my view. She chose not to face or meet people to discuss a whole range of issues she will habitually raise in this House, and did not have the courage or the guts to go to the US and meet her own interlocutors-----

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