James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

We have not abandoned it. We have our key target of 300,000 new homes and 15,000 affordable homes. What we have learned over the last number of years is that we need to be flexible in figuring out exactly how we are going to manage to deliver the affordable homes that people need across this country. We do have a plan, which is clearly set out and was launched only very recently, with the methods and the means by which we are going to deliver social homes and affordable homes and increase the activity of private homes that also need to be delivered. Without the private investment to deliver private homes, we are never going to solve the housing crisis because we are never going to be able to deliver enough homes. The supply of homes is what is crucial here. We have our target of 15,000 affordable homes annually. This is what we are working towards as we go through each local authority and as we look at the national landscape, for how we can best and most quickly deliver that. Rather than getting obsessed about the minutiae of small targets, we look at how we can unleash the deliverability of homes. My purpose and my aim is to ensure that people can get access to a home.

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