Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the performance of the housing market overall, we know we need to increase supply but, for example, up to the end of this May we saw more than 16,000 homes being completed and made available to people, which is an increase of just under one fifth versus the same period a year ago.

With regard to the Deputy's question on the trade-off between direct build and the use of the housing assistance payment, if we look at all the difficulties we have with housing supply, one of the things we all know is how long it can and does take to build a home and make it available to people. It is of little comfort to someone who cannot get a home now to tell him or her we will have a new home built for him or her in two or three years. This is where the value of the housing assistance payment comes in. It enables people who have housing difficulties at present to access solutions in the here and now. Over time I want to see a rebalancing of this. The State has a duty to build homes directly for people. I welcome the decision, and I was part of it, to move to direct build for next year, and allowing local authorities to do this, as opposed to the State competing with private citizens for the acquisition of the limited number of homes.

With regard to the help-to-buy incentive scheme, I have received a report on it and I am considering it. I will deal with it on budget day.

With regard to the definition of fiscal space, it might surprise the Deputy to hear I share some of his concerns on fiscal space and how we use it. It appears extraordinary to me at times that we have debates about fiscal space, which is hundreds of millions of euro, when, for example, we collect and spend between €50 billion and €60 billion per year. This is why I have made the point that, over time, we should move to what is the right budgetary stance for our country. What are the right taxation decisions we should take? Fiscal space is very static and implies that it cannot be changed. We operate in a more dynamic environment than this.