The Tánaiste's colleague, the Minister for housing, James Browne, has pulled the plans to build nearly 500 units within the Dublin City Council area under public-private partnerships. A total of 1,000 new homes have already been delivered under public-private partnerships and a further 3,500 were in the process of being delivered across the country. However, the Minister pulled the plug on the delivery of these additional homes. These units will primarily not be built because of opposition from the Department of public expenditure two days before construction on the project was to commence. Companies had already put substantial investment into the project in terms of both staff and resources.

We have a lame duck Minister. We need to now redirect moneys to the local authorities, which will deliver housing more cost-effectively than the public-private partnership schemes. Local authorities need to be the lead developers in delivering these badly needed homes.

Let me correct the record: we have an excellent Minister who is working very hard but housing is also a whole-of-government issue. The Minister, Deputy Browne, recently published, with me, the Taoiseach and the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, a new national housing plan that involves every part of the State, realising everybody has a role to play in the housing emergency, including our local authorities and State agencies.

On this specific project, I am not familiar with it but I will speak to the Minister-----

It is being pulled. It does not make sense.

I will speak to the Minister because we all want to see more supply and I will ask him to revert to the Deputy directly.