Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 20 May 2021

Public Accounts Committee

Housing Schemes Expenditure: Think-tank for Action on Social Change

9:30 am

Dr. Robert Sweeney:

Yes. As I mentioned, we needed a measure like HAP to address the emergency need while we built more houses. The spend on HAP takes from the investment in social housing. It will be an ongoing expense over the next five to ten years that will add to the Exchequer expenditure, but over the longer term there will be savings from it. As I mentioned, it is not an efficient of addressing housing need. Interest rates are very low so now is a great time to build.