Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am participating in the meeting from Leinster House. I thank the witnesses for their contributions. We all accept that the crisis of supply and affordability in terms of housing is our single most immediate challenge. I appreciate the work the witnesses are doing to help us address that challenge.

I will ask a couple of specific questions, the first of which is meant to clarify something. The ESRI's report identifies the pinch point for people in the rental sector. The State supports 53% of renters financially to secure housing and the ESRI identifies the 47% who are not in any way financially supported by the State as being trapped in unaffordability from a rental perspective and locked out of homeownership. It was concerning to read that the ESRI identifies as potentially inflationary an intervention to help these people to access affordable housing. The ESRI's report states that the loosening of the credit constraints by a shared equity scheme would likely lead to higher house prices. I believe I heard one of the witnesses from the ESRI say - I would appreciate it if this could be confirmed - that this statement was based on the ESRI's previous studies and did not take into account the supply side measures. Is that correct?