Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The issue of rent controls has arisen because of a supply side problem that currently exists. Unfortunately, such a problem cannot be resolved overnight as it takes to time to build houses, even when investment is available. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, is working on a proposal at the moment and I hope he is finessing it for an announcement that will be additional to and separate from what has been announced by the Minister of State with special responsibility for housing. It is remarkable that one year ago it was not possible to sell a house in most parts of Ireland and now prices are rising again.

There are financial constraints and unanticipated constraints such as the difficulties faced by builders who are ready to build but have trouble sourcing credit. These credit problems are often due to the recent records of builders with lending institutions. One suspects the lending institutions are not upset about this situation because it helps their internal ratios in preparation for stress tests in autumn.

There are definite supply side issues so the Minister of State with special responsibility for housing has been examining short-term rent controls and has sought legal advice on the matter. In an ideal world there would be no rent controls. When one takes into account clearing sites, designing buildings, getting planning permission and so on, it takes between 12 and 18 months to achieve the housing output the economy needs. We will never return to the days when 90,000 houses were produced per annum for the reasons we know. However, the construction sector is functioning at half the capacity of such a sector in a normal economy. There is capacity to double the current construction workforce and this is the challenge facing the Government. We must recast the economy rather than return to how things were done before.

What was the Deputy's question on oil and gas?

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