Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and his officials for coming in to help us with our work. He will be aware that we are tasked with making recommendations on housing and homelessness. To do that, we obviously need to understand the extent of the problem and our programme of work will assist us in that. The purpose of the Minister's attendance is for him to tell us if there is a plan in place. Is it adequate to address the problem? Is it timely enough? We could spend time going back to analyse why the pipeline was and is empty.

If it is not timely, can parts of it be fast-tracked or accelerated? Is it properly resourced? Is funding a problem? Are all the players aligned, for example, the Minister, the Department, the local authorities and all of the other elements? Can we improve on the plan as a committee? Obviously, we will take note of what the Minister has to say on that. Most critically, given the emergency that exists, what do we do while we are waiting for the plan to be delivered, if we are talking about a two and a half to three year timelag?

I want to pick up on some of the Minister's remarks. It is said the construction industry will only deliver 50% of what it needs to deliver, so what is being done to address that? Changes are proposed to Part V from 20% social and affordable housing, with the opportunity for local authorities to get money instead, to a new regime of 10%. At a personal level, I would be disappointed if it does not remain at 20%, with that 20% perhaps being social housing. Does the Minister believe the 20% was a barrier to delivering housing? If so, are we seeing any improvements?

The Minister talked about the need for local authorities to be incentivised to provide land. How might that work and can the Minister share his thoughts with us to help us with our future work? The Minister highlighted the issue of the supply of affordable housing. Given people are paying such high rents, they are not able to save for deposits. What does the Minister see as a solution to this problem?

The Minister said any input cost reduction must go to homeowners, and I absolutely agree with him on that. However, will that ever be possible given that, in the past, there were first-time buyer grants and the amount always ended up being added on to the cost of the property. Will there ever be a solution to that issue?

What plans has the Minister to address the issue of the powers of the Private Residential Tenancies Board when a property is sold? Can anything be done in that area?

The Minister referred to the timelag of two and a half years but he also talked about buying and leasing during that lag period. Is this buying and leasing option realistic, given the supply shortage, and does that impact further on the dysfunctional market?