On Monday, Fr. Peter McVerry confirmed that the housing crisis is worse this Christmas than last Christmas and that the Rebuilding Ireland plan is not working. Those were his words. Cavan County Council held an annual meeting with the chief executive on Monday. Those at the meeting confirmed to me that the council target for new houses for 2019 is 25. This is against a backdrop of hundreds of people waiting for houses. They have been waiting for years in some cases.

What is the Government plan for next year to facilitate our local authorities? They do not seem to be able to deliver. They seem to need help and support. How is the Government going to facilitate them? The total of 25 new houses for 2019 is abysmal.

I thank the Deputy for the question. We have given local authorities the resources, policy and funding to increase dramatically the stock of social housing. That is happening in some local authorities, but not every local authority is working to the same speed. We have not yet met with Deputy Smyth's local authority to agree the targets for next year. We are in the process of doing that currently.

In the beginning of January I will publish what was achieved this year by each local authority and set the target for 2019. We will be ambitious with the targets because we have the funding for next year. More money will be spent next year on housing than has ever been spent by a Government in one year. We will do that next year with each local authority.