Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, I welcome the 52,500 new housing starts in the past 12 months, acknowledge the progress the Minister is making and welcome his openness to new ideas. In that context, I ask him to seriously consider a housing trust dedicated solely to promoting right-sizing for people who want to do so. Ireland is a country where 90% of people in my age bracket are overprovided with homes and would be better in smaller homes more suited to their needs. That amounts to 400,000 homes, so if we could see even a small fraction of occupants move to more suitable accommodation, we would make big progress. A document was produced by the Minister's Department in conjunction with the Department of Health in 2019 which outlines a route we can travel but, sadly, not enough progress has been made on those initiatives.

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