I thank all the contributors to what has been a wide-ranging debate. I want to touch on what the Government is doing generally on housing. The housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, is one of a number of items. The first was the national planning framework, which has been revised and updated to deal with the increase in population. We want local authorities to look at their development plans and to cater for that increased population. One of the points that came up earlier related to local authorities. We want them to provide for up to 50% more housing than the targets that were laid down by the Department. We need more land zoned for development. That is important. Then we had the national development plan, which provided funding. We then had Delivering Homes, Building Communities. Today, we have the accelerated infrastructure task force report and action plan. They are all parts of a comprehensive plan, led by the Government, to get an increased supply of homes. That is the ultimate objective. Listening to the debate, it is all about supply. It is all about putting in those additional measures for supply. If you look at the Delivering Homes, Building Communities plan itself, some of the areas have worked very well for people who are looking to purchase or rent a home. The help-to-buy scheme has helped over 59,000 people. They are getting their own tax back, in many cases, to use as a deposit for a home. Some 8,400 people have availed of the first-home scheme. There is also the vacant property refurbishment grant, from which nearly 15,000 people have benefited. Many of the Opposition parties were opposed to all those schemes but they have benefited a huge number of people. We are extending many of them to 2030. Deputies spoke about affordable homes. That issue came up consistently. What does this plan do? It sets a target. We want to provide 15,000 supports for the people who qualify for the help-to-buy and first-home schemes and through local authority loans and the vacant property refurbishment grant. A point that came up earlier was that people may not have read the plan. I suggest they go back and do so. It was suggested that people who want to purchase a derelict or vacant property for a period should benefit from the first-home scheme. We are going to engage in that to see what we can do. Such people would probably also qualify for the vacant property refurbishment grant. That point is generally being missed. The issue of helping small builders also came up. Within the plan, there is €400 million for an equity risk capital investment programme. Some €200 million is going to Home Building Finance Ireland. There is also a scheme there at the moment, the ready-to-build scheme, which will be available to small builders in towns and villages to allow them to work with their local authority to build mixed units in those areas. That scheme is there for small builders. The key focus for us is increasing supply. Other issues arose. Local authorities are critical to increasing supply. We want to work with the local authorities. How are we doing that in the plan? We want them to zone more land. We need more land for residential purposes. The population has gone up. The national planning framework states that. We want to get the message out that we want local authorities to zone 50% above their targets. That will be zoned land that will be built on. Every local authority will now have an affordable purchase target. We want every single local authority to build affordable purchase homes. It is now called the smarter homes scheme. That scheme is available for people who are having difficulty purchasing on the open market. They can get a discount of up to 40% on the value of their house. They can also hold onto the help-to-buy scheme. We want the local authorities to be in that specific space. For social housing, we have a target of 12,000 units per year, which is an increase of more than 3,500 on what local authorities are currently delivering nationally. That would be a big increase in delivery. We are providing €500 million in an acquisition fund for local authorities to go out and purchase land that can be built on for social and affordable housing. We have also set up the housing activation office, which has a €1 billion fund to work with local authorities to do the enabling works on sites upfront. These sites are available and can be built on. Local authorities can enter agreements with builders to build affordable purchase and cost-rental homes. Social housing is obviously hugely important. If the local authorities exceed their self-build target, they will get funding for other activities within their local authority areas. That is important. Defective concrete blocks came up. Legislation was introduced by the Minister, Deputy Browne, yesterday. We are looking at that area. I want to deal specifically with my area of responsibility in housing, which is housing for older people. I will make a few points. We have increased the allocation for the housing adaptation grant to €130 million. It is up by €30 million this year and it will apply across all categories, including older people and disabled people. Furthermore, we are looking to increase delivery of housing for older people in social housing and private housing. In the area of the rental market we are doing a body of work because the incomes of people who are retiring will drop and we want to ensure we deal with that issue. We also want to give choice. It is all about choice. If people wish to purchase a smaller home, we will support them by looking at bridging finance. If people wish to adapt their homes to suit their needs within the home, perhaps with a smaller or separate unit, we will support that. We are looking at planning exemptions. Modular homes came up. A body of work is under way at the moment to look at planning. The point is that this is a co-ordinated and comprehensive plan, including the national planning framework, the national development plan, the plan we have now that we are discussing today, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, which goes up to 2030 and the plan we published today, Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan. Members say they want to see the barriers removed. The plan that was published today is aimed at removing barriers and dealing with judicial reviews. Water services came up repeatedly. Within the housing plan, we want to support private builders and developers to get schemes going in areas. The critical issue with the measures we are putting forward in Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan is that I expect and hope that Opposition Members will support what we are doing. Ultimately, we have choices to make and there will be issues that people will find difficult. When it comes down to it, at times the common good has to override private interest. It has to. The bottom line is that we must get an increase in supply. People have spoken about measures for apartments and that is all about viability. Everything here is about practical options - they are not theoretical - to support building. The State cannot do it all. We have to work with the private sector. We have put in €9 billion. It costs approximately €20 billion per year to build 50,000 homes so ultimately, it is about a co-ordinated approach involving the State and the private sector. I hope we can work in a collaborative way across the House so we can continue to increase the supply of housing.

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