Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Lyons for his presentation. I look at the housing system as a system. One of the important points for our committee to consider is that what one does in one bit of the system just does not impact on that element, but affects the system overall. One of the items we are examining is that, because of the historical failure to invest in the adequate provision of social housing, other aspects of the system have become congested and lopsided.

There is the ongoing dispute about the cost of private builds. Three major players on the industry side, NAMA, which will be annoyed with me for calling it on the industry side but it reflects the thinking in it, the Construction Industry Federation and the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland talk about a Dublin three-bed, 1,200 sq. ft. housing unit with €330,000 being the all-in cost. While I support Dr. Lyons’s proposal to have a government-backed database to have up-to-date prices, the difficulty is that the Government may take some decisions on measures to bring down these costs before such a database exists.

Can Dr. Lyons tell the committee his view of some of the proposals to reduce costs from some of the bodies quoting those higher-end figures, particularly the VAT and development levy reductions, and whether he is supportive of them? Does he see downsides in terms of the loss of revenue to local authorities or the Exchequer?

It seems that people need to get their heads around a percentage of housing stock being in the social sector. Based on Dr. Lyons's research on more stable housing systems in Europe, is there a standard? We have about 10% currently. Do we need 20% or 30%? Before we get into the question of who provides it, what is the sufficient supply of social housing to help stabilise the overall system? In that context, my concern with Dr. Lyons's proposal for the approved housing bodies is the fact that even if they were operating to the maximum of their ability and were able to get the credit they say they want, they would only be able to produce about 4,000 units per year and it would take them several years to get to that point. Given the level of housing need, why does Dr. Lyons seem to write off local authorities also filling that space but on a much larger scale in addition to the approved housing bodies?

Dr. Lyons said the least about the private rental sector. Again, it is one of the least regulated parts of our system. I am interested in hearing Dr. Lyons's thoughts on the record about how we could stabilise that sector in terms of security of tenure and rent certainty for tenants and make the supply end more professionalised and stable and less volatile.