Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I might comment on the expenditure element of that. Over the past two years in particular, the State, through various expenditure programmes, has stepped in to facilitate the better functioning of the private sector in the delivery of homes, and there are three main ways in which that is being done. First, there are the various funds the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has in place to help deal with some of the cost involved in the delivery of new houses, apartments and infrastructure. As the Deputy will be aware, he has a fund available for which local authorities and the private sector make bids to, in turn, allow the delivery of housing and apartments in parts of the country where we accept that without Government intervention, more homes would not be built.

Second, there is the help-to-buy scheme, which we have maintained at a reasonably strengthened level since the early days of the pandemic, again to give the private sector a greater level of assurance that a deposit will be available for homes that are built within certain price ranges.

Third, there is the first-home shared equity scheme, which is a response from the Government, mainly enabled by the work of the Department of Finance, to again help with the funding of mortgages. That, in turn, will give greater assurance that homes in a certain price range will be built.

I fully accept we have far more progress to make in the delivery of private and affordable housing, as I acknowledged in my opening statement, but the strength of what we saw in the first quarter of this year, with the numbers of planning applications, new homes having been started and homes having been completed, gives me a degree of confidence that these measures are having a very positive impact on supply. I know that whenever we deal directly with the construction sector, as I do regularly, it will always make the case for more support, but in the engagement I have had with members of the sector, they have acknowledged that the various schemes that have been put in place, especially the help-to-buy and first-home shared equity schemes, are playing an important role in enabling the private sector to build more homes.