Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their insightful presentations. I welcome seeing Mr. Taaffe in this forum. The representatives of both the CCMA and the Housing Alliance spoke about the benefit of delivering cost rental en masse in the context of rent affordability and to stabilise the housing sector. I agree with this and the AHBs play a pivotal role in helping to reshape our housing market into one that is affordable and inclusive of all income levels. In a previous committee meeting on this Bill it was suggested by the Housing Agency and the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, that we require at least 2,000 cost rental units per year to stabilise the market and eventually drive down prices. NESC also cited multiples of that figure, up to 6,000 units per year, as what we really needed. Have the witnesses engaged with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on multiannual funding and access to local authority land, given that AHBs will have to deliver cost rental units on such a scale?

Second, we often cite the success of the Vienna model, which has exemplified the housing model centred on affordability. In a recent meeting with the Austrian Green Party, which forms part of the Austrian Government with the Social Democratic Party, its members noted that every fourth flat in Vienna is city owned, with up to two thirds of the population in affordable and high-quality public housing. That includes high-income earners. Only about 20% of people own their own homes in Vienna. That is not because house prices are expensive, but because of the significant investment in delivery of public housing as well as the evident rental culture that exists there. What is the witnesses' perspective on the lease terms and the provisions we need? Would they support leases of indefinite duration, considering the State's current six-year lease terms?

Finally, in order to maintain cost rental as a non-profit driven model, do they agree that cost rental rents should be priced on the construction and maintenance and capped at a profit of 3%, akin to the Vienna model?