Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Report of Housing Commission: Housing Commission
2:00 am
Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The Chair will have to toughen up if he wants to keep us to our seven minutes. I thank the witnesses for all of the work they have done, as well as that done by their colleagues and all of the other participants in producing the report. It is not possible for us to get into all of the detail in one session. It might be very useful for the committee, as we go through other modules, to take the opportunity to invite the commission to send somebody in when we are discussing individual issues. This should not be a one-off process but rather a rolling discussion.
I have specific questions for specific people. With respect to the deficit, given what Professor Lyons said and based on the commission's report, what does he believe is the annual average number of new homes we will need from 2026 to 2030 to meet that deficit?
Professor Norris correctly highlighted that at least 20% of all stock should be social and cost rental and a lot of that should be front-loaded. It is a follow-on question from the one I asked of Professor Lyons. What does that mean in terms of the number of social and cost-rental units we will need on average from 2025 to 2030? I ask her to put a number on that.
Mr. O'Flynn mentioned the housing delivery oversight executive and his concern around the housing activation office. Can he tell us what he thinks is missing from what he heard from Government on the activation office from the proposals the commission made? What needs to be changed in order for the office to be able to do what is required?
If there is time, I will ask a final question of Professor Lyons and Professor Norris. They have different views on rent reform, which is fine. Given what they heard today, can they give us a sense of how their different recommendations in the commission's majority and minority reports relate to what they have heard on RPZ reform today? Perhaps we could take the questions in that order.