Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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416. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he has read the recent NESC report on housing. [12564/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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In June 2020, as a precursor to review of the National Development Plan (NDP), the NESC Secretariat were asked by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) to undertake research in relation to the policy options available to facilitate the delivery of public and private housing, in line with the compact growth targets set out in the National Planning Framework and related policies in the Programme for Government.

NESC published a paper in October, Housing Policy: Actions to Deliver Change. The report provides useful input on key policy issues for my Department, including examining the current and emergency institutional arrangements, how existing policy instruments could be improved and new policy innovation.

Increasing the supply of private, affordable and social homes is a priority for the Government and for my Department and I welcome the analysis undertaken by NESC in the report. My Department has already taken action on many of the recommendations set out in the report. Other measures are being evaluated in the context of the development of the new housing strategy, ‘Housing for All’, which I intend to publish this summer.