Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Regarding Brexit, there is no need to discuss all the work the Government has been doing in the last number of years to prepare for it. The Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation leads on matters such as supply chain issues and certification. That work is being progressed through that Department. We have also been in consultation with the CIF and there have been a number of stakeholder engagements to ensure such issues will not interrupt our capacity to build in terms of products and materials. That said, it is unknown whether there will be delays in the transport of materials and goods because of what might be happening in ports. We have put in place special provisions in respect of planning and working with the Office of Public Works to ensure there will be no unnecessary delays on our side in a no-deal scenario, but we are dealing with the unknown.

When one looks at housing demand in general in Rebuilding Ireland, it is difficult to know what might happen in a no-deal Brexit scenario. The forecasts from the Department show a slowdown in growth next year. It will be roughly the same this year but will slow down next year, although it will still be growing. Does that mean the demand for houses decreases and that house prices and rents dramatically decrease because the economy is not growing as much as people thought it would? We do not know. Alternatively, even if that might be happening in the economy, there will be more immigration into the country because of Brexit and, therefore, more demand for housing. We must keep a close eye on this. We will have to watch all the different factors and indicators to try to see what is happening. In the period from 2007 to 2011 there was a very dramatic swing of 103,000 people in and out of the country. It was huge. The important issue is to ensure that we can respond as best we can to anything like that, but also to ensure there are no knee jerk reactions in respect of the long-term plan and that we ramp up the delivery of housing in a sufficient way and so forth.

It remains an evolving and dynamic picture. We hope to have an answer to some of these questions in the coming weeks, but we continue to examine it in great detail.