Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----but that was last year. We actually turned the sods at that time. Work has started on some of the houses - I will give credit where credit is due - but they were last year's targets. I need the Minister to know that.

Let us not highlight what many of us believe are targets which fall very far short of our current waiting lists. It is great to have a plan and a goal but as we all know, having a goal is just not enough. There must be real incentives. What incentives or carrot or stick approach is the Minister using to ensure delivery of those units? I see great plans in my area but nobody is all packed, with keys dangling from their wrists. There is no delivery of houses.

We have a massive problem in Carlow because contrary to popular opinion, we are close enough to Dublin for people to commute. People are buying houses in our county and renting out the remainder. There is hardly a house left that we can buy through the local authority or that people are buying, and waiting lists are growing almost daily. What firm handle is the Minister applying to these planned targets because that is what we need now?

I know the Minister is aware that this is a serious issue but we have serious issues to deal with and before we engage in the usual back and forth debate on who is at fault, we need to draw a breath. We cannot sit here and argue among ourselves, blaming the current political players for the actions of past political players. We are not playing a history game. We should rise above that and look at the massive issues at hand.