Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Most Members of the House will agree that the single most important issue facing the country is the housing crisis. It has many facets, but one essential ingredient in resolving the crisis is the boosting of supply, including private supply. One of the barriers to increased housing supply by the private sector is access to finance. I welcomed the fund last year notwithstanding that it had real limitations and I welcome the fact that it has announced its first three projects. It has been very slow to come on stream and the uptake has not been great so far to say the least. Hopefully, it will move on from here.

At a time when the State can borrow ten-year money at less than 1% and given that finance is a key barrier to private housing supply coming on stream at the volume required, there must be a more ambitious way to tackle the issue. We need to get a new funding model in place so that construction projects can proceed. The traditional banks are now giving 60% to 70% of the cost of a development by way of a loan and developers and builders are having to access the remainder at very high cost from funds. The Minister knows that himself. The fund that is there, welcome as it is, is extremely limited, narrow in focus and not ambitious enough. I ask the Minister to look at it again, hopefully to redesign it and make it more ambitious.

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