James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

It is important to set out that putting it into the Constitution is not going to deliver one more house. This Government has set out that housing is a priority. This is evidenced by the fact that almost one in three euro in our national development plan is going towards housing delivery. This is not even including the funding for grids and roads, which are all prioritised towards housing delivery as well. Spain, for example, is engaging with our Department and Government because it is in a housing crisis. Their minister for housing is looking at schemes we are doing to see how they might work in Spain to help advance and deliver housing and affordable housing. Other countries such as Slovakia, Romania and France are also looking to Ireland. I had important meetings with the minister for housing from France only last week and with the ministers for housing from Denmark and Romania, all of whom are facing housing crises. Nobody has a simple answer to this at the moment. While reviewing whether we put that into the Constitution is important, let us not pretend it will deliver housing.

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