Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It could well be to do with the reduction in standards and sizes over the years brought in by previous Governments.

As well as that, there was a lack of signalling to apartment owners that apartment living is not just a transition to owning a house. Owning an apartment could be a very viable way of living as well. We failed to protect apartments when we protected houses and duplexes from the investment scheme.

Cost rental could be a game changer. We met the Green Party in Vienna, which is the leader in cost rental, but Vienna has about a 70-year head start on us. Do the Government and agencies need to do more to explain to people what cost rental is and what its benefits are? People look at me blankly when I talk about cost rental. It is seen as somewhere people go until they can buy and own a house. The set-up in Vienna is amazing. Why would people want to buy when they have this fantastic town-centre, managed, affordable rental system? What do we need to do in Ireland to make cost rental more popular or attractive, apart from building a hell of a lot more of it, which everybody wants to do?