Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The fact that 33% of rental properties involve people who basically should have social housing is a scandal in its own right. I accept there is a legacy issue in this regard but it appears to me as though 18 months is extremely rigid. The difficulty is not with people who are in houses but affects those who cannot get them and cannot get a landlord to lease a house to them, even for a short duration. This is the upshot of the problem. The fact that Members are talking about the market really is what I have been saying - I hope the Minister of State has heard me - that people are being abandoned to the market, as that will be the only option available to them. It is not a home but is somebody else's property. Has a business case been conducted on the amount of money that will expended by the State on rental properties into the foreseeable future and on what would be the return, were there to be a major programme of building, even in the context of mixed development in which there were properties for sale as well as homes to let?

I do not think the State's or taxpayers' involvement will be sustainable. It is a big social experiment and in the absence of major housing construction which would provide alternatives, it has big question marks over it.

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