Dr. Conor O'Toole:

When thinking about the housing deficit, we should ask where it lies across the population income distribution. It is all across it. It is likely to be extreme at the bottom end because certain households, certainly those on lower incomes, are unlikely to be able to gain access to housing through market means, either in the rental sector or the purchase sector. To me, that puts a greater emphasis on the State having to play a role to deal with the backlog. However, as Dr. Kelly mentioned, it is not just a financing issue. If we could have thrown capital at this, we would probably have solved it already. There are structural issues causing friction. As well as ensuring that we commit public funds – we will have to make a substantial State investment over time to produce housing, particularly low-income housing – we will need to ensure structural reforms across the system that will make the overall structure more fluid and efficient.

The Housing Commission report provides a really good blueprint for all the activities in the State sector. Thinking about these as a system for producing housing across the income distribution is an important way of thinking about how to deploy the State capital.