Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. Before coming in, I looked at a few newspaper articles going back to 2023. The hard, raw statistics the Minister quotes are impressive. It is good to see the journey we have gone on. The trend is more impressive. The figure from 2023 is 2,232 homes in Cork, a 16.6% increase on 2022's 1,913 units. In the city in the first 11 months of 2023, there were 1,027 commencement notices, a 25% increase on 2022's figure of 822.

Deputy O'Connor and I would like to reiterate our support for the measures the Minister has taken, including the exemption of services charges, the development contribution levy, first home scheme and help-to-buy scheme. The greatest endorsement of the work he has done is that in the early months and years of the Government, opposition councillors were turning up to the sod-turning and ribbon-cutting of developments in Cork but obviously it became politically sensitive for them because they do not turn up anymore, such is the extent of the building going on in Cork city and county.

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