Dr. Kieran McQuinn:

It goes back to the basic point that, ultimately, the way to deal with the housing supply issue, because of the scale of the number of units required, is that it needs both the private and public sector. We have talked before at this committee about the reasons housing supply in Ireland fell off so sharply, some of which were specific to Ireland and some of which were general issues. There was a general fall-off in government investment in housing across western Europe. That was for a number of reasons, a lot of which were tied in with the financial crisis. Governments were unable to spend the money on investment which they would have previously. Ultimately, a mixed solution is needed. Private sector involvement is needed and government commitment is needed, particularly to provide social and affordable housing. We can look at situations where there are synergies between the two. In some of the recent schemes the likes of the Land Development Agency and others have talked about, of engaging with private developers to try to activate planning permissions which have been granted but not activated, for example, there is scope for what we call crowding in investment rather than crowding it out. Sometimes when there is increased government investment, you can crowd out private sector investment. In this case, there is actually the opportunity to crowd in private sector investment. If you can provide funding, like the Government is in a position to do, it could mean more private sector involvement and greater government involvement too. Overall, you could end up with a net increase in supply.