Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am not going to seek to out the economists but I want to return to the auditor's report, because it is important. The Government has used these figures. Perhaps Dr. Slaymaker can comment on the impact that had on the UK market.

She stated that the likely impact of the shared equity scheme would be to increase prices, which might offset any benefits it might have. The UK report stated that the payment went to house buyers who did not need assistance in the first place and 60% of the beneficiaries used the scheme to buy a bigger property. Does Dr. Slaymaker consider that the Government has put control measures in the proposed Bill to avoid what happened in the UK, that is, people using the scheme to buy bigger houses or the fact that 20% of people availing of the scheme already had houses? If not, what control measures would she propose that the Government put in place to ensure this is not simply a demand-led scheme and the assistance goes to the people who need it?

Everybody, across the board, has raised the benefits and positive impact of cost rental housing. I want to probe cost rental a little more in terms of affordability. It has been suggested that some of the rents in the scheme will be between €1,000 and €1,300. Will this meet the affordability criteria that our guests have previously examined for middle income households? Is that the group the scheme is targeted towards?

The cost rental scheme seems to exclude people who are on the housing assistance payment, HAP. Dr. O'Toole talked about the people who are in the most insecure of tenancies, that is, those in the private rental sector. Does he think that people who are on HAP should be included in this scheme? It seems crazy to me that people who might be considered to be adequately housed by some local authorities because they are on HAP are left in the private rental sector while other people are able to avail of the secure system of cost rental.

I have a couple of concerns that the proposals for cost rental tenancies seem to be linked exclusively to costs. What should happen to somebody who takes up a tenancy in a cost rental scheme but loses his or her primary source of income or whose source of income dips? Should an element of the scheme include differential rent? Do our guests have any experience of that?

Mr. Cahill touched on reform of the vacant sites levy. Would he consider a vacant unit levy? The Government seems to be attracting real estate investment trusts, REITs, such as Kennedy Wilson, into our housing system. It is a build-to-rent and investor-led system. My concern is that a couple of those key investors will dominate the housing and rental markets and we will see units being left vacant because those REITs do not want rents to fall and have financial calculations suggesting it is not in their interests for rents to fall.