Mr. Hubert Fitzpatrick:

The key problem with Part V is that it is basically not affordable at present. House prices today are still approximately 40% to 50% lower than they were some six or seven years ago, yet the input costs have not adjusted to reflect that. There are still many parts of the country where it is not viable to build. That is why we do not have a recovery of house-building activity at present. We all know there is a sustainability requirement of upwards of 18,000 or 19,000 houses per annum, yet the output is closer to 11,000 units. It will take time for housing output to recover. This will happen only if we address input costs, through adjustment, or the sale price must increase. The only input costs that can be reduced are costs such as those associated with Part V, development levies or the VAT added to the sale price of a house. If we want an increase in housing output to meet sustainably the demand and help prevent unnecessary rises in the number on social housing waiting lists, we must bring housing output to a level that meets demand in the sustainable manner.

When the proposal was put forward for a levy on the sale of all homes, both new and second hand, we made our calculations based on the sale price of units from the property price register.

If one considers the total value of transactions in each of the last two years, one can see that it would have produced in excess of €60 million in 2013 and in excess of €80 million in 2014. We are of the view that those funds could be used by the voluntary housing agencies to produce much more social housing than will actually be delivered under the current Part V proposals.