Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

First, the Minister of State should stop using the words "housing market". Fr. Peter McVerry also said this. There is no housing market. The market led us to this problem in the first place. Second, the Minister of State should accept the fact that developers are deliberately not building because it would not be profitable enough. The CEO of NAMA let the cat out of the bag when he stated developers were not happy with a profit of €20,000 on a €300,000 house and were withholding on building until prices increased.

I was disturbed when the Minister of State did not use the words "local authority house building" in answer to any of today's questions. Clearly, he is not looking to local authorities to meet housing need. It is not the case that dealing with supply on its own will be enough. There was plenty of supply during the Celtic tiger boom, but it was unaffordable for most. We need a supply of affordable and social housing, not just private housing which would not be affordable for most. Local authorities can build houses more cheaply by using direct labour and cutting out the profit percentage and motive. This will keep the cost down, not off-balance sheet building or encouraging private developers. Using local authorities would cut out all of the profiteering by private developers. That is how we should supply housing with the money available to us.

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