Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We also passed the Affordable Housing Act. When I think of the legislation that has gone through this committee over the past four years, I sometimes wonder how I ever got to canvass at any doors. We spent most of our time here in the basement. The LDA is transformative and will deliver on the legislation we introduced. Some members supported that legislation and others did not.

Senator Boyhan's point about a dashboard is critically important. When I talk to people and tell them that 33,000 homes were built last year and 37,000 or 38,000 will be built this year, they find it very hard to visualise that. When we go into an estate of 150 houses, we find that is a lot of doors to get around in two hours. The numbers are large;33,000, 35,000 or 36,000 houses is a large number of houses. It is like building Bray and Greystones in a year. A dashboard would be really helpful.

People are finding it very difficult because rents are so high. I totally agree that we must provide more cost-rental homes. We are trying to address building costs. Some of these are out of our control. The cost of energy and many other issues are feeding into the inflation relating to the cost of materials. A dashboard would help to provide an objective view of things for people, rather than having to reply on political or media narratives. Notwithstanding the ongoing difficulties, we are making progress. Anybody who is investing in housing, including the companies trying to set up modular, off-site construction, need to know what the trajectory or pipeline is and the direction we are going. Industry wants surety, and it is seeing that at the moment.

I have referred to community-led housing a couple of times at our meetings. It will produce a very small amount of housing but every house produced is significant. I tabled amendments to the Planning and Development Bill to bring community-led, co-operative housing into the housing strategy.

I know the Minister is working on a housing (miscellaneous provisions) Bill as well. I do not know if there is scope there to try to recognise community-led housing but it is an area I would like to concentrate on. It might deliver 30 or 40 houses per county but it is cumulative and important. It falls between a number of stools at the moment and I hope we can do something to assist them on that.