Dr. Kieran McQuinn:

Dr. O'Toole might come in on the affordability issues. The Senator's first point is very well made. As I said to Deputy Casey, we have to look at land overall and ensure that as much land as possible is freely available as far as housing is concerned. That means looking at land that is either held by the State or privately and identifying the measures we can take to ensure land comes from both sources. That is why the Land Development Agency is potentially a very good idea for State lands, in that it can help free up the bottlenecks and ensure land is more freely available. We have also talked about the vacant site levy as a way of ensuring there is no bottleneck for privately-owned land either. Land should be more freely available from both sources. That is why I agree with the assertion that both must go hand in hand in order to address the issue.

I refer to getting the right mix of social and affordable housing versus how much is available at market prices. My preference would be for it to be weighted more in favour of social and affordable housing, given our current circumstances and the nature of the bottlenecks in the market. I do not think we could necessarily identify the parameterisation and precise ratio figures right now, but perhaps Dr. O'Toole could talk about our work on affordability, which would give some insight into that perspective.