Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)

With regard to the issues raised about the favoured candidate for the post, the question was whether the Government will investigate these issues, even if the Minister does not want to answer them right now.

We do not need a housing tsar to contact Fingal County Council, have a meeting, discuss its needs and then organise the payment for whatever needs to be done. We do not need a housing tsar. It is not as if this has not been done before. Previous Fianna Fáil governments did this in harder times in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. It is not rocket science. What is the role of the housing Minister if somebody has to be hired in and to be called a tsar?

The land bank in Dublin West is a strategic land bank for the whole county. There should have been meetings between the housing Minister and Fingal County Council about it, and getting work on it started straight away.

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