James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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I am a rural Deputy, and it is common in every constituency outside of Dublin to have a lot of small contractors and builders. They say that when they want to get involved in the building of houses, accessing credit is an enormous issue for them. There is something profoundly wrong about the Rebuilding Ireland scheme. A small builder who has a crew on the ground and opportunities to scale up, bring in a local workforce and train people to work in building should have just as much of a chance to get involved in trying to solve the housing crisis as large developers. That is something the Department should put a degree of focus on in the next 12 months. Small builders have a role to play, but they are being locked out of the market. Effectively, it would be common for a small or medium-sized rural builder involved in one-off housing construction in rural areas to complete 20 dwellings in a year. They would like to get involved in the construction of housing estates, but if they go to the bank, the bank will tell them where to go. That is unacceptable, considering the circumstances where we find ourselves now. Is that something Mr. Doyle could look at?