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:
Absolutely. The Government's or at least the Department's economic evaluation service has done some analysis on the cost to the State of building versus supporting tenancies through HAP or RAS. It differs from jurisdiction to jurisdiction - from local authority to local authority - but as I mentioned once or twice already, in the Dublin area where the affordability pressure is most acute, the savings are the biggest there in terms of the local authority building versus RAS or HAP. As I indicated, interest rates are very low so there has never been a better time to scale up our building of public housing.