Rental Sector
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-05
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James Browne (FF), Wexford

Short-term protectionism is only exacerbating this situation. I want to give people hope. We delivered over 36,000 new homes last year. That is the highest number of homes since Housing for All came in. We delivered an awful lot more homes 20 years ago. In my view, the kind of protectionism we brought in has undermined the supply of those homes. We need to get back to delivering at least 50,000 homes a year. Going back 20 years, at one stage it was 90,000. I think those numbers were questionable, which is why we now rely on CSO data. There was still significantly more than we are delivering now. We need to ensure we have that framework and deliver the supply of homes people need right across the country. We are in a housing crisis. I am the first to admit it. The only way to get out of it is through supply, not through more and more protectionism.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-05