Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To follow up on Deputy Barry's last point regarding the summer economic statement, as the Minister will well know, I have long promoted the view that we need a serious injection for delivery in the housing sector spanning a two to three-year period, the first year being the crucial one. The requirement is not 35,000 or 38,000 houses but in the region of 70,000 to 75,000 houses in the first year and the second year and then we would need to review the situation.

This will become more acute as the country recovers from the pandemic, something we all expect and hope for. The demand will be greater and the need for housing provision will be far more than it has been in the past.

I am not asking the Minister to give a commitment today but I am asking that it be borne in mind. My experience and my humble knowledge of the housing situation and the manner in which I have had to deal with it over many years have long since led me to the conclusion that we should not do things over a five-year period or a ten-year period. If we go that route, the children who are being born now will be adults before we reach a situation where we can say a person will have a house within a reasonable time. It is all about affordability, availability and supply. The only way that can be done is by a dramatic upsurge in the delivery of houses by whatever means possible. Even if we have to appeal to building firms from abroad to do the construction work, we need to do it soon.

Another point relates to the national summer report and the plan. In the United Kingdom there are indications of inflation above what was anticipated by the UK Government. How are we heading in that direction? How do we see it developing given that we have had to give, correctly, considerable incentives to employers and employees to maintain some semblance of support for the economy? Some economists have said in the past that where such incentives are given there may be a necessity to control prices as well. I can see where that is coming from. How do we deal with that? Do we ignore it? Do we introduce any measures to discourage inflation given inflation on housing will be an even greater catastrophe than we have seen before? They are my two questions. Do I let the Minister reply or will I go on to the other questions?