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

I thank the witnesses for their presentations and submissions. Last night, I read the submission papers. While there is a series of risks, we do not know how Brexit will pan out and we simply have no way of knowing, assessing or measuring its likely impact on the housing market and housing system. Other than highlighting the risks, and both presentations have done so very well, perhaps the discussion the committee really needs to have, knowing that we do not know these things, is on the types of mitigation measures we should argue should be put in place so that, whatever the negative impacts, we are in a better place to deal with them than we are at present.

Whatever one thinks about Rebuilding Ireland, and there are members of the committee who are strongly in favour of it and others who are critical of it, the one thing we can say with certainty is it was designed without an eye to the type of issues being raised here today. Whether we are for or against the plan, we can all agree clearly that something has to change or something has to be added to it to mitigate the measures outlined by the witnesses. My questions are more about where we go from here.

I am working on the assumption that while both public and private sector housing delivery is affected by the negatives, the private sector is clearly far more vulnerable to them. The increased costs of construction labour will equally affect public and private sector housing output, but the difficulties with credit do not have the same impact on the public sector because it is using Exchequer revenue, Housing Finance Agency funds or European Investment Bank funds. Likewise, the overall developmental costs in the public sector are much more controlled because it is not as dependent on land prices and developer profit and risk. Looking at the overall output and quantum of social and affordable public housing, is it fair to say that a key mitigation measure would be to state that the sector is a little bit less at risk and think about increasing over time the output of social and affordable housing delivered on public land with public finance? This way we might be able to pick up some of the slack that might inevitably come in the private sector because of the concerns that have been outlined.

Do the witnesses have other views on mitigation measures? There is very little we can do in terms of increased demand. We remain within the European Union and the free travel area, and whatever happens on that front will happen. It is the supply side issues that are clearly of concern and anything that makes it more difficult to supply public and private housing is a concern. Do the witnesses have other ideas or suggestions? If not, are there avenues they believe the committee could pursue in terms of future considerations to deal with it?

In some areas of Government and public policy there have been quite significant discussions and debates about the impacts and, therefore, the mitigation measures. From what both organisations have said, there seems to have been a bit of a blind spot towards this one. In fact, it is only something that has come onto the committee's agenda recently, primarily because of the interest of the Chair and others. Is this really the case? Is there really very little discussion at public policy fora level or in the organisations' interactions with Government and State agencies?

Have the issues raised by the delegates today not been part of the discussions and, if so, is that a concern? What can the committee do to try to raise the profile of some of these concerns to ensure that whatever mitigation measures are possible and appropriate are prioritised in terms of how Government and public agencies prepare for Brexit?