Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for the presentations today. We could spend another day here merely discussing this subject alone.

On the first mention of affordability, what automatically comes to mind is whether it is affordable to buy a home. We must remember that affordable housing is equally about the rental market and that whole sector, which we have a tendency to forget about.

I have a certain sympathy with the view that the cliff-edge nature of qualifying for housing supports is not the right way to go about tackling this crisis on a long-term basis. Even describing social housing, we should have housing supports on a sliding scale and available to everyone. Affordability could mean something different to me today than what it would mean in five years' time. Circumstances determine what is affordable. It is an area into which we probably need to dig deeper and be a little more radical in our approach.

I will concentrate on a few more practical factors in relation to affordability and issues that are preventing affordability. We can build three-bedroom and four-bedroom houses for €200,000 but we are selling them for €540,000. Is it down to profit? Is it down to greed? Is it down to land? What factor in respect of affordability do land costs represent?

Development contribution schemes and levies have been mentioned here. I often wonder is it time to review development contribution schemes because the LIHAF scheme, which we now have in place, in one way provides the critical infrastructure that development levies were supposed to provide at local authority level. Is there an offset happening from one or the other?

Should central government be left to look after critical infrastructure? Water infrastructure has been removed from local authorities and no longer forms part of their levy. Do the delegates have any information on that issue? Deputy Ellis has mentioned labour which is a significant issue that adds to the lack of affordability down the line.

Mr. Brennan made a few interesting points. I welcome Ó Cualann Cohousing Alliance's fantastic model and wish Mr. Brennan luck with the IDA Ireland site in Greystones. As we are all aware, he has outlined that the foreign direct investment companies investing in Ireland are beginning to buy properties, some of them potentially on a large scale. What are the long-term consequences? Do we have a full understanding of them? As a model, we do not need to look too far back in our history, when companies provided accommodation for their employees. Even in my small village of Glendalough, the Mining Company of Ireland built 20 houses for its employees. The owners of the Kynoch factory in Arklow - it built weapons for use in wars - built nearly 150 houses, all of which listed and perfectly usable today. Therefore, the idea of companies becoming involved in the delivery of housing happened in the past. Should we look to the foreign companies that invest in Ireland and ask them whether they can contribute to easing the housing crisis in a more official way than they do? It probably would help in some way to increase affordability for their employees, if nothing else, as was the case many years ago, when it was about providing an affordable place for employees in which to work.

Mr. Brennan spoke about the scale of Ó Cualann Cohousing Alliance's model. What scale does he wish to achieve? Assuming everything is in place, what scale does he expect to achieve?