My statement on Kilcarbery The Grange

Today we moved a step closer towards delivering 975 homes in South Dublin. This project for Kilcarbery has been on the cards for over 18 months and will deliver almost 300 social houses and nearly 1,000 new homes. We moved one step closer to building these homes despite the Mayor and Sinn Fein voting against this plan.

After a long and heated debate, Sinn Fein voted against this housing scheme on the cynical pretense that they wanted to change the funding model; which as the well know is not practical 18 months in to the plan. We've undergone a lengthy public procurement process and detailed design of the houses. Sinn Fein lead the ruling group of our council and know full well that we can’t move the goalposts at this stage.

Sinn Fein miss no opportunity to criticise the Government on housing delivery, yet this is a clear example of Sinn Fein saying one thing and doing another. It's nothing short of hypocrisy.

Changing the parameters of the scheme now, would have meant setting these 975 homes back 18 months. Playing politics with badly needed housing is only exacerbating the supply problems we have in the area. I'm very pleased that Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, Labour and Independents voted to get this project moving.