The Government expects the number of affordable houses built to increase from 2,600 to 3,000 annually, the Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Noel Ahern, told the Dáil.
Responding to Opposition criticism of the Government's housing programme, Mr Ahern said the 10,000 houses promised under Sustaining Progress would be built. "A substantial number of houses will not be completed on Government-owned land until 2006 or 2007 and it is expected that approximately 3,000 a year will be built on these sites.
"I don't know when the Government will leave office and perhaps not all of the 10,000 houses will be built by then, but they will be under way and that is important."
Mr Ahern said builders and developers had secured many planning permissions and they were working on many sites. "They will have a stockpile of planning applications."
When the Labour spokesman on the environment, Mr Eamon Gilmore, remarked that one could expect more than 315 houses to be built in four years, Mr Ahern replied: "No, one would not. The deputy must realise how the system works."
The Fine Gael spokesman on the environment, Mr Bernard Allen, said the problem was that the system did not work. "Planning permission must be achieved before developments can commence and developers seek extra permission before doing so."
Mr Ahern said those developments would have significant value in terms of their contribution to social and affordable housing but they would not click into place overnight.
Replying to Mr Arthur Morgan (SF, Louth) the Minister said funding for housing under the National Development Plan had to date exceeded the projected figures set in 2000.
"Total expenditure on housing from January 2000 to the end of 2003 at just under €5.32 billion was over 10 per cent ahead of the National Development Plan estimates set in 2000. Despite significant progress in output, it has not been possible to achieve a number of the physical output targets due to higher than anticipated construction costs."
