Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I come from a rural constituency and the real issue is we have seen a considerable shift of people from urban centres to rural areas because they have access to remote working.

That certainly accelerated during the pandemic, meaning they are competing with people on lower incomes and who want to access the rental market. The rents themselves now have been driven up. It is now hard to get access to good housing. It is a difficult situation seen in more towns and villages.

The solution is to build up supply in our housing stock to get people into more secure tenure within the social housing network. The State subsidising tenants and paying private landlords is not the way forward. It is not sustainable in the long term. I thank Dr. Sweeney for his presentation.