Vol. 1041 No. 5
2. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will consider the creation of a State construction company to directly build both social and affordable housing and to accelerate the retrofitting of local authority housing stock; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33204/23]
I argue here that we need a State construction company. I think even the Minister of State would acknowledge that the delivery of social and affordable housing is less than the Government had hoped for. It has not met its own targets, and when you look at what has been built by the private sector, average prices in Dublin are now €498,000. In my area they are €610,000. If we are going to deliver housing that can address the housing crisis, we need the State to build large numbers of public and affordable housing on a not-for-profit basis. To my mind, that means we need a State construction company to do it.
The Government recently established the Land Development Agency, LDA, for the purpose of developing affordable and social housing on State lands. The LDA also works to procure housing units more broadly for cost rental and affordable purchase. The Housing Agency separately provides a range of housing functions and services, including assisting local authorities to deliver their housing programmes.
In this context, it is not clear that establishing another housing agency would see any increase in overall housing delivery, in particular when housing supply is increasing. I fundamentally disagree with the Deputy about the Government not delivering and the chain of supply not happening. It is happening at pace. Almost 30,000 homes were built in 2022. This significant uplift in supply has continued in 2023, with almost 31,000 completions in the year ending March 2023. This is the first time since 2009 that rolling 12-month completions have surpassed 30,000. The uptick in commencements in quarter 4 of 2022 has also continued into 2023. Almost 13,000 homes commenced construction between January and May this year, which is the most for this period since records began in 2014, and is an increase of 7% on the same period last year.
Housing for All is clearly having an impact, with more homes being built now than ever. I am optimistic we will meet our overall targets for new homes in 2023, and the recent substantial uplift can be sustained and built upon in coming years if we maintain our focus on existing actions under Housing for All. We are delivering, and we are delivering at pace across all housing types - cost rental, affordable and others, as well as the infrastructure needed to put them in. We certainly do not see a need to create a State construction company.
I hope we can move off the script now to have a real conversation. Of the 30,000 homes delivered, 7,000 of those were social housing, including approved housing bodies, AHBs. However, 73% of those were bought or leased. In other words, what the State is actually delivering on a not-for-profit basis is a tiny proportion. The councils only built 1,680 houses. Some 8,000 were build-to-rent, and the rest were big private developments. I have quoted the prices. If the majority of building is done by commercial entities, it is not affordable. The average price in the country is €308,000. That is a lot. In Dublin it is €498,000. In my area it is €610,000. Cherrywood is the biggest residential development in the country, and houses are on sale starting at €650,000 and upwards. That is not affordable.
There is nothing wrong with private housing construction. We have not just been funding the development of social housing. We fund the approved housing bodies to construct housing. There is a significant uptake in first-time mortgages, which is to be welcomed. It brings first-time buyers into the market, which is absolutely to be welcomed because those are housing solutions for those families. It is also critically important that we are putting funding in place for Uisce Éireann to front-load the infrastructure and allow construction. If the Deputy is talking about a State construction company, is it to only develop State solutions? We are developing and delivering right across the board. The commencements speak for themselves in terms of what is being delivered. What the Deputy is suggesting would be cumbersome and time consuming to try to deliver something the Government is already delivering under Housing for All.
More than 12,500 people are homeless. I am telling the Minister of State, and he can deny it all he likes, but for working people it is currently not affordable to rent or buy. It is just not affordable. I am dealing with a family, which I might address in another question. The father works in a semi-State company. He is on a decent salary. They are going to be homeless because they cannot afford to move anywhere else, and they are now apparently above the threshold for cost rental by €1,300. There is another woman working for Tusla with vulnerable children. She has been four years in emergency accommodation because she cannot find anywhere to rent or buy. The stuff being built by the private sector is not affordable. Even the social housing we are getting is being bought from the private sector in the form of Part Vs. It is, by and large, the same with the AHBs. Councils only built 1,689 social houses last year out of the total built. We need a State body to build social and affordable housing on a large scale, and which is actually affordable.
Again, I disagree with the Deputy-----
There is nothing to disagree with. It is a fact.
I disagree first of all about the necessity to set up a State construction company. We are delivering under Housing for All. For the first time in a generation, we are delivering affordable housing and cost rental, as well as funding the AHBs to deliver too. We are delivering right across all housing tenures. That is critically important and we will continue to do that. The problems with establishing a State construction company would be quite significant, notwithstanding the time it would take to establish in terms of legislation. It would also have to compete with private sector companies in an already constrained employment market. We certainly do not see the need for it, while we are delivering at pace for 2022, 2023 and throughout the course of Housing for All.
1. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to set out what additional measures he intends to put in place to stem the deeply worrying rise in the number of adults and children in emergency accommodation. [33418/23]
Will the Minister outline the additional measures he intends to put in place to stem the deeply worrying rise in the numbers of adults and children in emergency accommodation?
I wish Deputy Gould good morning, as I was getting worried there. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle has given some latitude to allow his question, which is good. It is an important question.
There is no doubt but that the continued rise in numbers accessing emergency accommodation is of serious concern to me and to the Government.
I am working with the national homeless action committee to ensure we address the prevention of entries into homelessness and exits from homelessness as a matter of urgency. I chair that committee, and it is made up of the State stakeholders, as well as the NGOs. We are prioritising measures with a focus on accelerating social and affordable housing supply through a combination of new builds, targeted acquisitions and leasing.
Some €4.5 billion is being made available this year to support the largest State home-building programme ever, including 9,100 direct-build social homes and 5,500 affordable homes. I remind the Deputy that last year we built more new social homes than we have done since 1975. There will also be increased provision for social housing acquisitions for local authorities to acquire at least 1,500 social homes. This is the purchase of homes with tenants in situ. It is focused on properties where tenants are in receipt of social housing supports, as the Deputy will know. Every local authority is working hard on this initiative and initial feedback indicates that we will exceed that target of 1,500 quite substantially this year. There is no ceiling on this either.
For households ineligible for social housing, I have introduced the cost-rental tenant in situ scheme, for which we have also had our first approvals. The targeted leasing initiative, which has been set up specifically to target those experiencing or at risk of homelessness, is set to deliver over 400 additional social homes this year. Policy is being developed to help tenants to buy their rented homes on the basis of landlords offering their tenants the first right of refusal. I expect to bring a memo to Cabinet next week on this proposal. These measures are all aimed at preventing households from becoming homeless or to help people exit from homelessness to reduce the number of adults and children in emergency accommodation.
The Minister outlined the tenant in situ scheme, which he said is just starting to roll out now.
No, it was in January.
I am sorry. It is the cost-rental tenant in situ scheme which has started to roll out now. The Minister also spoke about the tenant in situ scheme, which he said he hopes will achieve more than the target of 1,500 units. These schemes, however, are only preventing additional homelessness. We have seen a 20% rise in 12 months in the figures for homelessness to 12,441, of whom 3,699 are children. I understand that the Minister is trying to reduce the number of additional people being added to this figure, but we have seen an increase of 182 people in one month and a 20% increase in one year. What the Minister is outlining is not going to stop the figures for homelessness from going up and it is definitely not going to reduce them. I understand the Minister talking about these schemes, and for those families who take them up, they are a godsend. Homelessness, though, is out of control.
Sure, this is the biggest single issue we are tackling and supply is key to all of it. Deputy Gould knows this as well. To give some facts, and to look at last year, 5,478 exits from homelessness were achieved by way of tenancies being created or else people exiting into social housing. We had more people exiting in the last quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year into permanent social housing because we are building up this stock. People enter homeless emergency accommodation for many reasons. It is not just because of the end of tenancies but also because of relationship break-ups or new arrivals. It is a complex issue. Looking at the first quarter of this year, though, nearly 1,500 adults, as well as their dependents, either exited or were prevented from entering emergency accommodation. This is a 15% increase on the year before. We are, therefore, exiting more people, although more people are coming in and I am aware of this fact. To be helpful to the House, and it is no consolation to anyone in emergency accommodation, but about two thirds of people spend less than six months in emergency accommodation before they are exited out. I think everyone will agree that the way to do this is to increase supply, which we are doing. I remind the Deputy we built more new social homes last year than we have done in nearly 50 years.
We in Sinn Féin would reinstate the eviction ban. We would also help to slow down people becoming homeless. If the Minister had done this, those additional 182 people would probably not have been homeless in May. It would also have given the chance to perhaps reduce the figures. Additionally, legislation has been proposed by Simon and Focus Ireland concerning homelessness that the Government has not adopted. Why? These are people who are on the front line and who understand the challenges facing local authorities and people providing homeless accommodation for people who become homeless, and the Government is not doing anything. Why is it not enacting this legislation?
We also know that rent increases are driving people out of their homes. Where is the rent freeze? Sinn Féin would reinstate the ban on evictions and bring in a rent freeze. We would also ensure that there was enough money in the budgets of the local authorities as well.
I will leave the Minister with this point. I am dealing with a family that will be becoming homeless next Monday. There is a husband and wife and their 12-year-old autistic child. They have been told that her little dog, that she has as a comforter-----
I thank the Deputy.
-----cannot move into the hotel into which they are moving next Monday. This is what the Minister is standing over. An autistic child is being ripped out of her home and going into a hotel room.
Sinn Féin would not reinstate the eviction ban and the party has changed its position on this issue three times. It has changed the dates. It has said it would extend it to Christmas this year, then 1 March, then December and then January. The reality is that the eviction moratorium gave us the opportunity to deliver more accommodation, which we did. We have debated this issue. In the last full quarter, before the introduction of the moratorium, 1,947 households and individuals presented as homeless to homeless emergency accommodation. We saw this continue throughout the moratorium as well. We must be careful, as we would be in government, that any measures we take, especially concerning the private rental sector, which Sinn Féin rails against all the time-----
That is not true. We would-----
I did not interrupt the Deputy once. We do need good landlords in the system as well. The measures taken impact supply. They do, and if we were to continue to have an open-ended moratorium, then we would see more accommodation lost in the private rental sector, thereby exacerbating the problem. We are focused on increasing supply, which we are doing.
3. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an update on his efforts to resolve the issues of pay, recruitment, retention and rosters in the retained firefighters service. [33420/23]
This question is to ask the Minister to provide an update on any efforts he is taking to address the recruitment and retention crisis in the retained fire service that has resulted in industrial action and strike action, which is currently suspended and now before the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. What actions is the Minister taking now to address these key issues that affect the 2,000 retained firefighters across the State?
The implementation of the retained review report recommendations, and the Deputy may know this, is currently part of a sensitive deliberative process of industrial relations negotiations under the auspices of the Labour Court. I inform the House again that I commissioned this review that produced 13 recommendations, which we accepted. The chair of the Labour Court wrote to the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA, and SIPTU on 16 June inviting representatives of both parties to attend exploratory talks, which took place on Monday, 19 June.
The purpose of that meeting was to allow the Labour Court to be made aware of the details of the dispute such that the court could form a view as to whether, in the exercise of its statutory functions, it could assist the parties in finding a resolution. All stakeholders agreed to attend and met the Labour Court on 19 June. The Local Government Management Agency, supported by representatives of the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and my Department, attended the court representing the management side. Following detailed engagements with both sides, the chair indicated the Labour Court would intervene in this dispute. SIPTU suspended the operational aspects of its ongoing industrial action pending the formal outcome of the Labour Court hearing that took place on 26 June. I wish to take this opportunity to recognise the positive steps SIPTU has taken in suspending the operational aspects of its industrial action to allow the resumption of fire service provision in the interests of public safety and for the safety of firefighters themselves. The Labour Court’s recommendations, once issued, will be considered by both sides. I am taking a personal interest in this issue. My Department will continue to support the LGMA in its role as an employer.
The engagement has been positive. It has been undertaken through the industrial relations mechanism, which I had always said was the way forward on this issue. We will await the determination of the Labour Court and take the situation from there. I have committed to firefighters that we will, and will continue to, advocate on their behalf. They know that and I have met many of them.
It was the Minister's failure to address the recruitment and retention crisis that destabilised the retained fire service right across the State and forced these retained firefighters into having no alternative but to initiate industrial and strike action. This is down to the Minister and his consistent failure. We know the key issues here. We know the constraints that have been placed on the retained firefighters, including work-life balance and being on call 24-7. We also know about the recommendations.
Recommendation 2 states, "A new framework for service delivery is required that ... provides remuneration, which effectively balances the availability requirements" for the retained firefighters, so it is there in black and white that remuneration needs to be addressed. However, negotiations between the LGMA and the retained firefighters broke down because of the constraints that were put by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, on the ability to deliver a solution to this, and to essentially deal with remuneration. The Government was responsible for breaking down the negotiations. That is why we are currently before the WRC. It is the Minister's failure that has led us to the situation we are in.
I inform Deputy Brady that the matter is before the Labour Court. I am not going to go down the road Deputy Brady has blatantly gone, in trying to politicise what is a really important issue. We have seen the Deputy's theatrics here before. This Government has a focused, determined, and deliberative approach. I have met many firefighters all over the country. I commissioned the review. We accepted the recommendations. Pay is core to that. I am hopeful that it will be possible to resolve the situation through the Labour Court, which is the proper way to do this.
I thank the unions and the firefighters themselves for engaging in that process. The 2,000 firefighters right across the country in the retained fire services are incredibly dedicated people. I want their terms and conditions to reflect that and to be enhanced. We will get there. It may disappoint Deputy Brady, because it might remove one of his political campaigns, but this is too important for the workers and for public safety. The engagement at the Labour Court has been very positive. I will await its determination. We will not be found wanting.
The Minister has been found wanting. The Government, and successive Governments, have been found wanting for more than 20 years, because this crisis has not just evolved over the last weeks or months. This has been a crisis for 20 years or more. The Minister talks about politicising an issue but it has been politicised because of the successive failures of the political establishment, including the Minister's own party. The matter is before the Labour Court, as the Minister correctly outlines. That is the case because of his failure and the failure of his Government to address the key issue of remuneration and the fact that the constraints put on the negotiations by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, resulted in them breaking down.
I am very hopeful that key recommendations will come from the Labour Court, dealing with the work-life balance issues and remuneration. They are the key issues that need to be addressed. The key question is whether the Minister will give a commitment that the recommendations that come out of the process will be immediately addressed and implemented. That is the crux of the question here; whether the Minister is going to sit on the recommendations that come from the Labour Court and allow this issue to continue. We know the industrial action has been suspended by the retained firefighters but they are ready and willing to re-engage in the industrial action if the Minister continues to sit on his hands and allow this crisis to continue into the future. Will the Minister act on the recommendations when they do come from the Labour Court?
Let us allow the Labour Court do its work. As I said, there has been very good engagement from SIPTU and there is a way forward on this. I want this resolved. I have been very clear on that. Remuneration is key to that. No one is sitting on their hands and no one will be sitting on their hands. The unions have entered into the process and I welcome that. Let the Labour Court do its job. Let the court issue its recommendations following its determination and they will be considered very seriously.
4. Deputy Seán Canney asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when he will review and publish the income thresholds and the level of grants payable under the housing aid for older people, housing adaptation grants and mobility grants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33199/23]
Could we get a sense of when we might see the review that is ongoing in regard to housing aid for older people - the housing adaptation grants and the mobility grants for people who deserve them? It is a great scheme. While I am aware the review is ongoing, I would like to know when it will be published because I have come across a lot of people who are struggling with the costs.
I thank Deputy Canney for raising this matter. My Department provides Exchequer funding to local authorities to support the suite of housing adaptation grants for older people and people with a disability, which support older and disabled people living in private houses to adapt their home to meet their needs. I agree with Deputy Canney that the scheme is hugely beneficial. The total funding available for the suite of housing adaptation grants has increased to more than €83 million for 2023, continuing the year-on-year increase since 2014 for these extremely important grants. This year's allocation will build on the success of last year where we exceeded the number of home adaptations initially targeted.
The Government's document, Housing for All, commits to reviewing the grants scheme and a report on the review has been prepared by my Department. The review was informed by engagement with external stakeholders, including the Department of Health, the HSE, the Disability Federation of Ireland and the Irish Wheelchair Association. Written submissions were also invited and considered as part of this process. Among the areas the review considered are both income thresholds and grant limits.
My main focus in respect of these grants is to seek to spread their benefits by further increasing the funding that is available at national level, including wider access to funding at local level. On foot of my consideration of the review report, I have asked my officials to engage with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, which they are actively doing, on the recommendations in the review report. I will publish the report, including the agreed grant levels and income thresholds once that engagement has concluded. There is active engagement with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform at the moment. We want to see the deliberations conclude as quickly as possible. We want to get an enhanced scheme that brings significant benefit. Deputy Canney can rest assured that the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and I are making a great effort to reach a conclusion to our discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform.
I welcome the fact that the review has been concluded and that it is with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. I hope that the costs will get sorted out. The one issue I did not hear the Minister of State talk about is housing aid for older people. Is that part of the review? The level of the grant needs to increase because of construction inflation, and the income thresholds also need to be increased.
In addition, a little bit of flexibility is required for the housing adaptation grants because of the nature of the individual cases of people with disabilities. We need to provide flexibility to local authorities to ensure that the scheme is effective for the individuals who need the money. I compliment Galway County Council, where I have had experience of the staff members who are working on these schemes, including the engineers who go out to check them. They deserve great credit. The demand is increasing and it is important that we recognise that as well.
To give reassurance, we are looking at all grants, including housing adaptation for older people, the mobility aids grant and the disabled persons grants.
The review looked in the round at both income thresholds and the level of grants. They are all included in the review and the submissions made to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. Active discussions are now taking place between the respective officials in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. This is very much a priority for the Department. All areas are being considered. An active body of work is under way and discussions and negotiations are taking place with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform at the moment. We hope to bring them to a conclusion as quickly as possible. Thereafter, along with announcing what has been agreed, we will publish the report.
It is all very positive. I know it takes time to get the money in place. I am sure they will not be found wanting, but I encourage the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to make sure that we try to get this done as speedily as possible.
I have come across a leaking roof on a house where a woman in her 80s lives. The cost to repair it is €27,000 and the maximum grant she can get at the moment is €8,000, so it is totally unaffordable for her even with the grant. It is important that we look at that as a matter of urgency. I encourage the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to also engage speedily in the process to make sure that this scheme, which is a very good one, is enhanced. I thank the Minister of State, as I know he is committed to it.
It is important that we keep the speed up and the pressure on so we end up with a scheme that is further enhanced and can make people live safely in their own homes for as long as possible, as set out in Sláintecare.
I absolutely concur. We see on the ground, even in my role as a Deputy in Limerick city, the impact and benefit it has. I want to acknowledge that there is a significant body of work under way by our officials in the Department. I acknowledge the work of the officials in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform as well. At this moment in time, it is up to date in that discussions are now taking place. The Deputy will be aware, as a former Minister of State, of the process. We are now at the stage of the process where we have a firm proposal from our Department, which is being costed, and we are doing rigorous due diligence. It is now under active discussion between our respective officials. Our clear intention here is to deal with the cases the Deputy mentioned, across the range of the mobility aid grant as I referenced earlier, the housing adaptation for the elderly grant and the disabled person's grant. They are hugely significant on the ground. We hope to bring that to a firm conclusion as quickly as possible.
5. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage further to Parliamentary Question No. 169 of 18 May 2023, if he has received the report in respect of 2021, 2022 and to date in 2023 from the Galway social housing task force; if so, if he will provide a copy of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32786/23]
Baineann mo cheist le cúrsaí tithíochta i nGaillimh - tá sé níos cirte easpa tithíochta i nGaillimh a rá - agus an tascfhórsa a bunaíodh breis agus ceithre bliana ó shin. Níl tásc ná tuairisc ar an tuarascáil. Níl aon tuarascáil feicthe againn fós. My question relates to the task force that was set up because of the housing crisis in Galway, which is unfortunately on equal footing with Dublin. We have heard nothing. There have been brief letters but there is no report from the task force four years later.
I am well aware this is a matter the Deputy has raised consistently. I wish to advise her that I have received a report from the chair of the Galway task force covering social housing and related issues over the period of 2021 to 2022. Once I and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, have completed a review in consultation with officials, we will arrange for a copy of the report to be sent to the Deputy. We will also have to consult the members of the task force prior to forwarding the report.
I acknowledge the work and effort made by all the task force members in working together to respond to the challenges and drive responses to the delivery of public housing in Galway. The chair is taking on this role pro bono, having undertaken a similar role for the Cork social housing task force, where there was a focus on enhancing co-operation between the two councils and other partners. The Cork task force saw social housing delivery markedly improve and my intention is that the same drive will continue towards a similar outcome in Galway.
The Deputy will appreciate that there is no single, easy solution to the range of challenges. In particular, in the period covered by the chair's latest report there was major and worldwide disruption to construction following Covid, with some temporary site closures, supply chain difficulties, construction inflation, labour and skills shortages and impacts of the Ukraine war. The task force has given the Galway councils and their delivery partners a valuable opportunity to assist each other through those challenges. Building on that and driving further delivery and solutions is where I want the task force's focus to be for the next year. I know we can count on the support of public representatives in this work too.
In summary, we have received the report. We are giving it due consideration. We will be engaging with members of the task force and once we have had an opportunity to do that work we will certainly forward a copy of the report and would welcome observations.
We have a report. After that statement, clarity left the room. There will be further negotiation and the Minister of State is going to go back to the task force. When am I going to see a copy of the report? The purpose of the task force was to analyse the problem in Galway. Let me read from the minutes of the most recent task force meeting, where it was stated that emergency accommodation is non-existent, that services are under extreme pressure and there is currently a waiting list for services. This is about homelessness. Rents are rising by 19%. The average rent in Galway is up 19.4%. There are no homeless services, there is a task force that has not reported and there is a report now. When am I going to see that? Has an analysis been done? The councils are behind their targets for social housing. The task force acknowledged that. I am looking here at rents rising. The Simon Community is telling us there is no availability under HAP and the Minister of State is telling me I am going to get a report sometime in the future. He cited Cork. Was a report produced under the task force in Cork?
I cannot answer that. I will certainly clarify that point. On the Galway issue, the Deputy brought this up recently in the House and asked for the report to be published. We have gotten a report, which we have just received, as the Deputy will appreciate. She will appreciate that we need to give it proper due consideration. We have just received it. We are going to go through it in depth. The Minister met with the Simon Community in Galway just this Monday. It is something we are very conscious of. It is important that if we get a report we give it due consideration at both ministerial and departmental level. It was hugely important to us that we would have that report for the Deputy today. Once we have gone through the report - we have just received it - we will get it to her as quickly as possible but she will appreciate that we have to go through it forensically as a Department. Part of that will involve us engaging with the task force, the chair and the members and then we will get the report to the Deputy as quickly as possible. We would then very much welcome her observations and comments on same.
I have not just raised this recently. I have raised it consistently since the task force was set up. A task force was set up because of the housing emergency. I appreciate the Minister of State's efforts in getting the report but I would appreciate his comments on how it has taken this long to get a task force to produce a report in a city where the rents are rising 19.4%, where the homeless services are non-existent and where we have a waiting list of over 4,000 households and people on waiting lists for ten or 12 years. In addition, the docks are doing their own thing, Ceannt Station is doing its own thing and the Land Development Agency is doing something else. We are now hearing that the docks area will produce a master plan some time in the future and it will primarily involve four blocks of affordable housing. In a city that is crying out for public housing, there is no master plan. We have no master plan in the city. Can the Minister of State believe that? Each area is doing its own thing. I would have thought that the task force would have analysed and highlighted the issues and brought them back to the Minister years ago, saying what the problem was and what it was going to do.
When the Deputy brought this up previously, I undertook that we would get the report. We have a report now. We have a working document. It is not fair to say what the Deputy has said. Social housing delivery has taken place in Galway. We would obviously like to see a lot more but it is not as if there has not been any. In 2021, Galway city delivered 129 houses and Galway county delivered 117. In 2022 there was an improvement; Galway city delivered 150 and Galway county delivered 224. We have a document. We should deal with what we have now. We will give it active, urgent consideration. We will engage with the task force. We will give the Deputy a copy of the report as quickly as possible and then we will engage with her on it. We are all on the same page here. We have to look at the current situation. We have a lot of talk about the past. I am interested in the present and in the future. We have a report. It is a detailed report and we will give it detailed consideration. We will then forward a copy to the Deputy once we have done that. She will appreciate that in her own deliberations. It is important that we act and that we are seen to give active consideration to everything that is recorded and requested in the report.
