Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would have thought that it is common practice that the people who present to the committee are entitled to their own views, whether one agrees with them or not. That has been the practice for as long as I have been in the House since 2007. Senator Boyhan's contribution probably points to a bigger issue with the presentations and the discussion we are having. I apologise for not being here for the presentations but I read both presentations yesterday. I wanted to come in to discuss some issues. The papers we have here are housing papers that mention Brexit, as opposed to being Brexit papers on housing. Dr. Healy has highlighted some very valid issues with regard to housing policy, housing delivery and the type of housing models. If one was to remove the word "Brexit" from Dr. Healy's submission these issues would still be pertinent whether Brexit was happening or not. That is not a criticism. It shows the crossover in terms of us trying to grapple with what would be the specific effects on the housing sector based on Brexit but especially a hard Brexit.

The presentation by the Economic and Social Research Institute gave some specifics around what it sees as the increase in unemployment based on a hard Brexit or a no-deal scenario, which is around 2%. I disagree with other Senators present who say there are opportunities here. Any opportunities from Brexit are far outweighed by the negative impacts of Brexit.

On both submissions, I wonder why one aspect was not mentioned. We are supposed to be talking specifically about housing, and perhaps the witnesses addressed this in reply to the questions. The common travel area will endure, whatever happens. With regard to the risk to labour one the submissions referred to the UK being used as a valve to switch on or off, depending on economics.

Even if we consider what has been discussed between the European Union and Britain about the reciprocal rights of British and EU citizens, I am not sure why that plays such a prominent role in both of the submissions. I do not understand why the common travel area, CTA, is not mentioned if we are talking about a threat to the workforce from the North. Maybe it was mentioned and I missed it.

On the all-Ireland electricity market, the east-west interconnector is a major piece of infrastructure for delivering energy security. As such, it will be important for new and existing homes. Again, I do not see any reference to the interconnector or the North-South energy market in either submission.

On the increasing cost of building, we know the issues that arise in this regard and Dr. Healy, Mr. O'Toole, Professor McQuinn and Mr. Roantree addressed them. On the issue of a potential increase in the cost of materials, has either of the institutes done work on what level of material is imported from Britain? Is the issue that material comes via the British landbridge or that we are overly dependent on British material for building products? That is a building-specific Brexit issue on which the witnesses may have information and, if so, perhaps they will share it. I have tabled parliamentary questions to the Minister asking whether the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government has a housing specific contingency plan in place based on a difficult Brexit scenario. The answers indicate it does not have such a plan in place. That issue is a difficult one to grapple with because we are in a housing crisis.

Many of the issues raised in the submissions would be valid regardless of whether Brexit happens. For this reason, I am trying to find out what the Brexit-specific pieces are, for example, what is our dependence on the British market for building, expressed in percentage values, be that through material, personnel, energy security or fuel imports? Dr. Healy referred to fuel and I know our dependence on gas imports reduced as a result of the Corrib gas project. Renewable energy was also mentioned.

This is not a criticism. I am just trying to get under the bonnet because we are a housing committee. The witnesses mentioned housing issues that we are already dealing with. What additional factors arise as a result of Brexit because I am at a loss in some respects?