Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is two, but they are both the same question. On the need for cost rental council housing, with which we all agree, what is Professor Drudy's view on the issue of income thresholds for council housing? Many of us have argued that the thresholds need to be raised. Should there be any thresholds? It drives one group into being social housing people and others are above that.

All witnesses have identified the slowness in the public provision of council housing and affordable housing. Professor Drudy said that while they are amenable and they are doing some stuff, it is very slow and less than is needed. Do Deputy Wallace and Mr. Reynolds believe, as I do, that there is a connection between their slowness and an anxiety that if they were to build large amounts of council and affordable housing, available for significantly less than market prices, it would impact on the profitability of the private sector, and that they are worried about this? If the council built affordable housing on the lands at Shanganagh Castle for €200,000 and the private developer down the road was to sell the more or less the same sort of house for €300,000 or €400,000, then there is a big problem for the private developer if the council is putting up affordable housing on a large scale. I believe the council should do that, but is this the reason the council is not doing it on such a scale?