Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-26
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

Without question, when you analyse the figures and talk to people, population growth is a key area, but we also need to respond in terms of social housing, for example. We are building more houses in direct builds per annum now than since the foundation of the State. Last year, over 9,000 social houses alone were built. Ultimately, the provision of increased social housing is the best route to dealing with homelessness. No other way will sustainably deal with it.
In addition to that, we are building a lot of affordable homes and giving a lot of support to people in terms of starter homes. Across the board, in terms of housing assistant payment, HAP, and other things, we are giving assistance to people who need to access housing. Without question, the momentum is towards increased house provision. Some 36,000 homes were built last year. We hope to increase that figure for 2026 and probably will. What is interesting is that commencements are up by 176% this year, with about 11,000 commencement notices in the first four months. Real dwelling investment is up by 19% and construction employment is up by 33% since 2020, 10% year on year. That is because of the increased house building that is taking place. There has been a 55% year-on-year increase in terms of land for housing and deals to facilitate housing. The Home Building Finance Ireland, HBFI, loan book is up by 25%.
Whatever metric one is looking at, there are increases happening. The issue is the speed and how we can exit people from homelessness as quickly as possible, and from emergency accommodation in particular. If we do a temporary eviction ban, we will depress supply again. We have been through this. The Housing Commission said that the existing renting situation could not continue and that we had to create a more permanent framework for the rental market to give certainty to all concerned. What the Deputy suggested towards the end of her contribution would actually make the situation worse because supply would be depressed. We need more supply and we need it as quickly as possible. It is interesting that any form of supply we have proposed in the past three months has been opposed by the Social Democrats and by others in the Opposition.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-26