Mr. Mark FitzGerald:

On the housing supply issue, the first problem is that not enough land has been zoned. We need to reduce the price of land and increase the amount of land that has been zoned. There are obviously infrastructure and service costs associated with that, but generally, looking back over the past 20 years, there has been a very cautious approach to public policy and planning. Obviously there has been a lot of dysfunctionality during that period, but it is clear that we have to bring down the price of land. If healthcare in general affects the grandparents of this country, housing affects the futures of their grandchildren.

We have to do everything we can to bring in affordable rents and make housing affordable.

We also need to have one body which owns this target. The country needs a national target for delivery. Mr. Duffy spoke about how we may need to build up to 50,000 houses per annum. His projections, based on the 2016 census that is attached to the opening statement and the appendix of this document, is an interesting analysis. It shows that, 200 years on from the Famine, we will have approximately the same population on the island but will need 60% more houses than we currently have. I would like to see a body such as the national planning regulator own the target for the annual delivery of housing and be accountable for it. We need a planning system that works from the bottom up, of course, but also one that works from the top down. I would like to see those things implemented in terms of housing supply.

On other incentives that might increase supply and moderate prices, the interesting thing is the help to buy scheme. I can understand that commentators greeted it with a deep degree of scepticism because they thought it might inflate house prices. The evidence is that it is not increasing house prices but rather is increasing supply. The average price of a house that people are using this scheme for is now €375,000 or lower.

There are other issues, including VAT. I would not have advocated moves in that area, but the crisis is so great that if we can reduce VAT to help make house building more viable, particularly apartment building, it would be useful. The macroprudential rules set down by the Central Bank are a check on any possible inflationary aspects of that. We need to encourage private, well-behaved landlords to stay in the market and to enter the market. While the interest relief initiative in the recent budget is to be welcomed, there are other things that could be done. For instance, property tax might be offset against income. More private landlords are needed, especially in regional Ireland, and initiatives such as those I have outlined would be welcome at this point.

We have to think bigger. I agree with the Deputy that public policy takes a cautious approach. Job creation has tended to dominate the narrative of public policy here rather than house building in recent years. That is beginning to change now. Taking a very pessimistic view about Brexit, my fear is that the cautious approach of public policy might become more cautious and we may miss the bigger prize. If in the year 2000 we had been able to predict what Ireland would be like in 2006, we would have been all the better for it. If in 2006 we had been able to predict what 2012 would be like, we would have been all the better for it. If in 2012 we had been able to predict what 2018 would be like, we would have been all the better for it. We need to look six years and more hence, beyond the immediacy of Brexit, and try to produce a country that has affordable housing for the younger generation coming through.