John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I concur with that view. There is an ideological hang-up about leasing, which is unhelpful. We must welcome any scheme that grants security of tenure to a tenant for between 20 and 25 years versus somebody living in an unsecured HAP property.

That is perhaps something we can debate as a committee in the context of our recommendations. I will take that a little bit further and focus on County Cork, given what Mr. Geaney said regarding the leasing element. He referenced earlier the inactivated private rented sector, PRS. We spoke with representatives from Dublin City Council about this last week. My view is that there is a huge opportunity in untapped PRS schemes that have not yet been activated. Mr. Geaney spoke about the difficulty in cost rental with the ultimate rents and what the calculation is coming out at. The problem as I see it is that X plus Y often equals market rent, not market rent minus 25% and, therefore, viability is the issue in that regard. He might comment on that.

There have been changes in the context of CREL, which are helpful in terms of the 45%. I appreciate that I am asking him to comment on something that is not in place but our job as a committee is to tease out possible ways of unlocking development. However, if a subsidy was in place so that X plus Y minus the subsidy equalled a more affordable rent, does he think that would unlock even more of the inactivated sites in Cork city?