I refer to the reply to Question No. 84 of 5 October 1999. Since then, my Department has updated the figures in relation to housing lands availability in the greater Dublin, Cork and Galway areas. This shows that the potential housing land supply in the Dublin Area could, subject to the necessary infrastructure development, increase to about 193,000 housing units over the next five years. This represents an increase of over 32 per cent on the estimate of 146,000 units contained in The Housing Market: An Economic Review and Assessment published in March this year.
The National Development Plan 2000-06, published yesterday, provides for massively increased investment in economic infrastructure such as public transport, roads and water and waste water services over the next seven years which will provide necessary services to open up land for housing development.