Taoiseach Micheál Martin has expressed frustration at the slow pace of the planning and building process for homes and the failure of the system to respond swiftly to innovation.
Mr Martin told the Pat Kenny show on Newstalk that the system was too slow and that there needed to be more modular homes and timber homes, rather than a fixation on conventional building methods.
"The system was too slow given the nature of the current crises in housing and refugees", he added. The system of providing accommodation for students could also be better.
In response to criticism about the handling of plans to move 135 Ukrainian women and children from a hotel in Killarney to Westport, Mr Martin said that there should never be a fear about correcting a situation.
He paid tribute to Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman and his department who were faced with difficult choices at a time when there were “extraordinary pressures” on the system for dealing with people fleeing the war in Ukraine and those seeking international protection.
"It was a fair question to ask how some of the people who arrived in Ireland seeking international protection had gotten on to flights without papers, he said.
“We’re in a wartime situation, that has an impact. It is very difficult to insulate any society against the consequential impacts”.
Anti-refugee sentiment
Mr Martin expressed concern that there was a danger of anti-refugee feelings especially given the emergence of far right political parties who were “gaining traction” elsewhere in Europe. It was his personal view that women and children needed to be looked after.
On the subject of the post game chanting in the dressing room by the Irish woman’s soccer team, the Taoiseach said he did not believe that malice had been intended.
The speed of the apology had surprised him. But there was a difference between dressing room singing and political views. There was a broader issue of IRA violence in the past.
There needed to be a structure around violence for political ends. “We need to take the culture of the gun out of politics. That’s the broader story of the past”.
Mr Martin acknowledged that he “got it wrong” when it came to the issue of Shane Ross not appearing on RTÉ about his biography of Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald.
Sinn Féin was suing “a lot of media”, they did not want people talking about their past. It was a coordinated agenda on their part, he said.
There cannot be one rule for Sinn Féin and another rule for everyone else. It was not healthy for them to try to shut down legitimate issues.
The Taoiseach also defended the “universality” of energy supports, from an administrative point of view it would take time to differentiate between a family home and a holiday home.
He said "A general measure to quickly cover all the population had been needed."
