Ms Sorcha Edwards:

It was an honour for me to take part in the work of the commission with the experts in the room but also the additional multiple experts who took part in the work of the separate working groups. This process could be recommended for other member states because many of them are struggling to bring the different actors involved on the same line in terms of what is needed to address the housing crisis. It is an exercise that is worth talking about throughout the EU.

I have worked for more than 20 years in the field of public social and co-operative housing at a European and international level. Therefore, I would like to reinforce section 8 recommendation No. 45, for a change in the approach to housing in Ireland with a substantial increase in the amount of social and cost-rental housing being delivered. From my perspective that not only increases the amount of housing available for key workers but it also increases the capacity of local authorities and cities to cater for those with special needs such as people with a disability and for elderly people who are rightsizing. It also enables us to be more proactive in terms of catering for the climate challenge by reducing the carbon footprint of existing homes and through more responsible delivery of new homes with consideration given to a lower carbon footprint. Overall, it enables us to have a bigger, more responsible part of the housing sector which is not only driven by profit, but is a viable sector while not extracting profit to the same extent as other parts of the housing market. I would reinforce that.

As part of the section 8 recommendations I would stress again that as we have recommended the diversification of funding, I would link that to another recommendation where we take the example of France where they are recycling finance from private savings into a national bank which is working on a not-for-profit basis delivering funding for the housing sector. Many people are thinking about that diversification of funding in Ireland. That could be one of the excellent ideas that could go in. We should also look at No. 54, the issue around choice based lettings and the very varied rates of rent within the social and cost rental housing sector in Ireland. This needs to be streamlined to allow the increase in capacity and increase of delivery that is not happening at the moment.

I would stress No. 48 as well, regarding the importance of keeping the finance in the sector. That means working on the basis of funding that is constantly recycling, for example at the level of the provider, whether it is the Land Development Agency, the local authority, the housing providers or any local entity, that it is kept recycled whenever there is a surplus, or at the level of a national fund. The important thing is to keep the funding within the sector. This is what we have seen to be really successful in other countries in the EU.