Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 11 June 2019

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council

Mr. Seamus Coffey:

The differential rents paid by tenants are obviously controlled, but the rents paid to the AHBs as part of the contract are based on market rents and in some areas market rents are controlled. It does present a risk. It seems likely that last year there was an underestimation of the amounts set to be paid. How one goes about ameliorating that risk is open to debate. Perhaps a different approach to housing should be taken, as we discussed here previously, that is, one based on the cost, rather than market prices, but that is something that takes a long time to develop. Other countries have done it over a period of between 20 and 50 years, but here we have had a process of building council and corporation houses and then selling them which has undermined our ability to do it.

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