Mr. Sean O'Connor:

It is a very difficult situation. Enniskerry Road, within a seven-day window after opening, was ten times oversubscribed. The application window for apartments in Citywest closed after five days. There were 44 apartments and 508 applications. They will go into a computerised lottery. The same will happen in a month in Kilcarbery. Clearly, there is massive demand.

Cost rental is the missing link of policy. It is for people who are falling through the middle, and the gap is growing all the time. The difference in Austria, including Vienna, is that social housing is available to everybody. That is the more radical solution. There is no compartmentalised cost-rental scheme and a social housing scheme. Possibly we would get better mixed tenure through a solution like that but I am not in government, nor are my colleagues. We are implementing policy. We think it is a positive step forward but it is a question of how to get enough housing into the marketplace at the one time. Once the arrangement starts to have an impact, it should in theory have a bigger policy drive to reduce rents in the open market. Why would you rent a private apartment in the circumstances? I accept what the Deputy said about Enniskerry Road but €1,200 is about 50% below the current open-market rent. It is €2,300 or €2,400 per month for a new two-bedroom flat. There is a significant discount but it is not enough for some people. If the State were to rework the scheme and make the CREL proportion 40% or 50% or make use of a grant, that would resolve the problem, but it means someone putting in more subsidy.