Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

On the example of the bulk purchase of houses and duplexes and the regulations that were brought in, if there had been public consultation, which would indeed have been quick, what would have come through would have been a clear wish for apartments to be included. Every week in my constituency, I talk to people who are living in homes that are larger than their needs. They want to be able to move into apartments being built in their local communities. They do not want to go from the situation of owning their homes to paying a high rent and having the insecurity that entails. They are incredibly frustrated that they cannot buy new-build apartments. They are very angry and disappointed about this. There is a mismatch in the housing stock. Smaller homes are being built that people with a smaller housing need in terms of the space want to move into but they want to do that on a homeownership basis. They want to vacate the larger house they own that would be suitable for a larger household, but they are not able to. This is having all sorts of knock-on effects in terms of mismatch in who is in different parts of our housing stock and has knock-on effects on affordability, rents, prices and everything else. In a time we are trying to encourage more compact growth, this really goes against a lot of Government and national policy about trying to encourage sustainable development. In effect, home ownership in more compact-growth, higher-density, new-build apartments has been ruled out for most people. It has been a real shortcoming that the Government did not engage in public consultation on that. If it had done so, the Government would have come out with a different proposal at the end of if. Consultation could have been very short.

Regarding technical and orientation, is the Minister of State saying that it would have to be urgent need and technical?