The chairperson of the National Sub-committee on Housing of the Local Government Management Association has said the plan to bring 47,000 units into the social housing stock can be achieved but it will take a few years to do so.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Eugene Cummins, who is also chief executive of Roscommon County Council, said it will be some time before the building of new units can begin as it will require planning for estates and a tendering process.
Mr Cummins said there would also be a focus on the housing assistance payment, acquisitions and the return of vacant units to the housing stock over the lifetime of the plan.
He added that a considerable number of houses would be acquired from the private sector, but he did not give exact figures as to how many would be bought and how many would be built by local authorities.
"Over the life of the plan and in the first years of that we will be focussing on the housing assistance payment, acquisitions and the returning of void units into use.
"The scale of the investment, it will require the planning for estates, it will involve the private sector getting back into building, so it's going to take a few years until we start actually building."
.@morningireland spoke to the National Sub-committee on Housing Chair about the Govt's plans to end homelessness https://t.co/HFZP7SvSKe
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 22, 2016
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Irish Brokers Association's Mortgage Committee welcomed the announcement of yesterday's new mortgage rules.
Speaking on the same programme, Michael Dowling said customers are not being treated fairly by banks here in terms of interest rates and that despite a reluctance by people to shop around for better deals, there are savings to be made by shopping around.
Mr Dowling said variable rates are excessive in Ireland in comparison to other European banks and that this needs to be addressed.
