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

On a separate theme, we talked earlier about the need for private investment, which I certainly agree with. We need plenty of private and other forms of investment in the housing sector. I think the Ministers will agree on that. I have a strong view on how that private investment is channelled into what types of housing.

One issue that is brought up by constituents consistently, particularly in the Dublin area and in Dublin city more so, is that more and more new housing is apartments as we move towards compact growth. What comes up a lot of the time is that people say new apartments are being built in their community, which is fine, and they welcome that, but the real frustration is that they are not able to buy the apartments because they are rental only. It comes up consistently. I often meet couples in a family-sized home who have lived there all their lives and who absolutely want to stay there, and I fully respect that. Then, I also meet couples who might be in a similar situation and say they no longer want to be in the family-sized home and would like to move to one of the new apartments. However, there is no way they are going to sell up and leave the security of homeownership to pay high rent. This is something I have raised a good bit. I tabled amendments to the Planning and Development Bill 2023 that were not accepted. However, is this something that is going to be addressed? Yes, we need private funding, but can that be channelled in a way that does not mean it is all rental-only and that there are options? As the Minister knows, we are getting smaller household sizes. That is the way the demographics are going. Smaller household sizes should be able to have homeownership as well. It should not just be larger family sizes where that is an option.