Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I was also at the national economic dialogue and, in the discussions I had and in some of the public forum discussions, I heard many people calling for a cost rental model. I accept that more housing has been built but it is still a fraction of what we need. It is not a party political point when I say that I fundamentally disagree that we need to leave things as they are. We need a radical change in our housing policy. What Dr. Healy said about the mistakes of the past 40 years is so true and I do not see us changing. This is not a numbers game. It is about changing society. Dr. O'Connell is right that we must test it and learn from our mistakes, but we need ten projects and not one or two. We need St. Michael's by all means, but we need ten projects. If we do not do it now, the horse will have bolted. This is when we have the money, the growth and the population to cater for. If we are not willing to reform and do things differently, my children will grow up in a society where the same housing crisis and issues will come back and this will have been a missed opportunity. I must register a completely different view on the desire for radical change at scale.