Ms Colette Bennett:

The Deputy mentioned inflation, Brexit, the impact of Covid and the impact of the replacement of native tree species with Sitka spruce, which has been policy for quite some time. That will not necessarily drive up construction costs all that much. Again, if we reconsider how we do procurement in this space and look at it on a national level as opposed to a regional or county basis, we can certainly impact measures there to drive the cost of materials down.

In terms of building social infrastructure around housing developments and what that might mean for housing costs, again, this part of the social infrastructure is absolutely needed. If it does not happen now, it will come at a cost and at a societal cost. We know, for example, that less equal societies have higher crime rates and worse health, so it comes at a cost across a number of areas in that case. Factoring in that cost now will actually save money in the longer term.

In terms of the cost and affordability generally, our proposal is for over 14,000 social units per annum at a cost of €3.3 billion. We welcome the ESRI report today that mentions a doubling of the housing budget and an increase in social housing provision. Part of the reason that we welcome that, and we have been driving it for a number of years, is because when people are accommodated properly - not through social housing solutions but in actual social houses and social housing developments - that frees up at least 60,000 units that are currently on HAP and more which are in RAS. That frees those private properties back into the market. That, together with Central Bank constraints on credit, should drive down house prices. That is why we are very much against the notion of an equity stake at the buyer side and these demand-side incentives. They should be at the supply side instead because demand-side subsidies, as we have seen with help to buy, only serve to maintain artificially high house prices whereas if you have sufficient housing stock - we need to double our current housing stock within the next ten years - that frees up stock in the private sector that can create more affordability and drive down house prices.