A special unit has been set up to deliver plans to develop homes in Dublin.

Dublin City Council is aiming to build more homes after it was revealed there are 28,000 applicants on the housing waiting list.

Sinn Féin Cllr Daithí Doolan, Chair of the Dublin City Council’s housing committee, welcomed the announcement and said the council is also aiming to surpass its targets.

He said: "We have reached cross-party agreement on how we can squeeze every ounce of opportunity out of the government's plan. We agreed to establish a special unit in the housing department whose sole focus is to develop plans to deliver housing on council sites. We agreed, with management, that plans and updates on our home building programme will be presented to city council meetings every month. The initial 20 sites will be ready as soon as possible. If extra resources are needed, they will be made available.

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"We want Dublin City Council to be the biggest housing developer in Dublin. To ensure this happens, we will actively seek finance independent of the department to build homes on council land. We want a plan that allows the city council to access funding from the Housing Finance Agency and other financial intuitions. A working model will allow city council to pay back any loan and interest. This allow us to build social and affordable homes and to break the reliance on the private sector."

(CD/MH)