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

The figures we just heard in terms of the profits for the two publicly-listed developers are extremely high gross profit levels. In the middle of a housing crisis where there are huge issues with affordability and people accessing housing, they do not need additional subsidies that increase their profits further. There are a couple of principles in terms of any kind of subsidies that are used on housing that should be absolutely fundamental. The first is that if there are subsidies - subsidies need to be well-designed and well-targeted - and they are being used in housing, they should always be explicitly linked to affordability. General subsidies that do not make housing more affordable for people and are not tied in with that are wasteful.

Second, as the Minister will be well aware, subsidies in an area must be well-designed and well-targeted. There has been a range of subsidies in housing going on for years, a lot of them tax subsidies and tax incentives. If they are not well-designed and well-targeted, what happens in any sector - it applies to housing as well - is that underlying issues in the sector that need to be addressed, such as productivity, are not addressed and the subsidies mask over the need for that. If we just look at productivity in housing, for example, the Central Bank Quarterly Bulletin No. 2 2025 states: "The relatively poor productivity performance of the construction sector in Ireland is also evident in a cross-country setting, and in 2024 was second lowest across comparable European countries." We have a real issue with productivity in our construction sector and it is not getting addressed. These kinds of further subsidies that will boost the profit levels for developers is not going to address it. Therefore, it is not tackling the underlying productivity issues that need to be addressed to ensure we have more high-quality housing and make sure it is more affordable. These subsidies are not tied in specifically with affordability.

Most European countries, if they are doing things in the area of housing, ask how can we boost affordable output? What measures do we need to invest in to ensure that? They do not go for these blanket types of measures that are not linked in with affordability, not well-designed, not well-targeted and do not incentivise productivity. I have huge concerns, therefore, and I am heavily opposed to this approach.