Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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While keeping on the housing thread, I will speak about one other significant bugbear. Every publically-built house that remains in public ownership requires an initial capital cost but then revenue starts to come back. In other words, that revenue replaces current expenditure, which is now going out in housing assistance payments or rental accommodation scheme payments, with a capital expenditure that is once-off and then brings back revenue. If the Minister is concerned about excessive spending, why does he not significantly ramp up in this regard, with the intention of eliminating spending on social housing that will continue to escalate as current expenditure? The majority of the Rebuilding Ireland plan, even with the somewhat increased plans for public housing, remains dependent on major levels of current expenditure going out in the form of RAS and HAP. That represents a drain on the public finances. Why does the Minister not radically shift on that? I am asking not only from a public housing or social point of view but from a financial point of view. Is it not better to start to eliminate or phase out massive annual expenditure going out to the private sector in favour of having a far greater stock of public housing?