Ms Áine Myler:

Yes. There are many things that influence how housing is provided outside of the costs involved and where it should be built. Such issues include whether people will want to live there. They may worry that, if they share a front door with ten other people, one may cause mayhem, and they therefore may not want to be there. As a result, there may be a resistance to move into that kind of development. We have already discussed the question of the underlying legislation with the Department. As I have said, the 2011 Act was a good start but it definitely needs revision. The points on population growth are really important. It again goes back to the concept of mapping what we have and asking where everyone is going to live if our population grows to a given extent. We need modelling of trends and data-driven evidence to underpin our policies with regard to housing, infrastructure, and everything else.

The LDA is the agency to be given the public ownership target. Vienna has a target to retain 60% of the housing stock in public ownership. It is not quantified in terms of social or affordable housing; it is just public housing. If one can afford to rent a unit at a reasonable market rent, that is the rent one will pay, but it is retained in public ownership. This was achieved over 100 years so we are not going to do so over ten, 20 or 30. Nonetheless, it could be set as an initial target to be achieved on an incremental basis with staged targets for five or ten-year periods. The LDA could be the organisation to oversee that.

Ms Meghen made a really good point about smaller clusters, of which we have many in this country. If our local authorities are not using their powers to acquire sites in their own jurisdictions, that is an issue. If local authorities have a proper purpose for buying sites in small towns, they can do so. They should be using that power. The LDA could be tasked with measuring and appraising the performance of local authorities to ensure they are utilising the means available to them to develop their own lands or acquire adjacent lands.