Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions Dail Éireann — 2026-01-29 ============================================================ Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow I know we come at these things from a very different place ideologically, but we need private investment to help build homes. We do not wish to live in a country where every house is built by the State. Can I just be clear about that? We want to build social homes. I think we are on track to build a very significant number this year, and we will have the figures for 2025. We want to build affordable homes and, heaven forbid, we would also like more private homes, and that ain’t a bad thing either. There are lots of people who want to move out of their box room for the first time. They are not looking for a local authority home in all instances; they are actually looking for a home to buy. Planning objections are a factor in relation to that. They might not be in RTÉ, when the Deputy was out there the other night, but people do care about planning objections. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and Deputy Barry Ward are coming to work every day, pursuing policies to deliver more houses. Deputy Boyd Barrett is seeing housing schemes in his constituency, and saying, “We don’t want that one, that one and the other one.” That is not helpful or constructive. The Deputy is right that homeless figures are too high, of that there is no doubt. That is why we are continuing to invest more in emergency accommodation. It is also why we have to continue to understand better the composition of our homelessness figures so we can pursue the correct policies. Viability is important. Again, we have different ideological views. However, unless the Deputy’s view is that the State must build everything, then we need to make sure that it is viable for people to build homes because if it is not, they will not build them. That is how business works, as the Deputy knows. We have already seen very positive indications from the decision we took to reduce the VAT rate in terms of people now being much more interested in building apartments in this country. That is not just my view, by the way. The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland looks at apartments, and it has said there are five categories that it looks at. Before our changes, only two were viable, but now a number more are deemed viable as well, so that is progress. At a European level, there are real housing challenges, so we are not the only country grappling with this. In Europe now, we actually have one of the strongest rates of home completion in the entire European Union. For every 1,000 people living in Ireland now, 5.9 homes are being completed, whereas the EU average is 3.3. I stand here very aware that there is a housing emergency, very aware that it is the biggest domestic issue bar none, very aware that people are putting life decisions on hold until they can get a home, absolutely, but also very confident that the decisions we are making now, hard at times as they are, will yield real benefits in terms of increased supply. Supply, supply, supply is the way forward in relation to this. We have taken a number of actions. The Deputy made a fair point in relation to the infrastructure that is needed to enable housing. I agree with that. I hear, right across the country, "We have zoned land here. If only it was serviced." That is why, this week, we announced a €1 billion fund that every local authority, including in Dún Laoghaire, can apply for. It opened this week, and it closes at the end of February. There is an onus on every local authority to realise it is part of the solution here, or part of the problem. It is up to them. They need to put in their applications now to draw down that funding to help put in the road infrastructure, water, wastewater or whatever is needed to open up more sites. In relation to infrastructure, I agree. In relation to viability, we have different views on that, but I believe we have taken a number of measures. We will continue every day to engage constructively with any idea that can help to increase supply further. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-29/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-29