Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach certainly did not mean he wanted to carpet the countryside with houses. What he meant was we must consider using more brownfield sites in Dublin for housing, as opposed to continuing to extend cities and towns. He mentioned Dunboyne and Clonee and the fact that rather than continuing to extend them we should develop existing sites. That will be addressed in the replacement spatial strategy up to 2040. It is not a case of putting all of the houses in Castlebar. However, we know from visiting county councils that houses are required in every county. It is not just a problem for Dublin, Cork or Limerick because housing issues arise in every county and they must be addressed. That is the case but that is not what the Taoiseach was referring to the other day.

Deputy Burton referred to the infrastructure fund and what she said is correct. The 75 applications that have been received total approximately €700 million plus in terms of infrastructure. That does not include all local authorities, as only 21 local authorities have submitted their plans. I am sure there are more to come. It has been a useful process in terms of giving us a view of the amount of infrastructure required. I hope the initial fund of €200 million is only the start. We know that we will need more funding but there are other mechanisms to fund it. The strategic investment fund is interested in funding another phase of this at some stage so there is other money to be got. The Deputy correctly identified European money as well. This is an initial phase to which we have committed in order to get things moving on key sites. A decision will be made in the coming weeks and months based on certain criteria such as sites that can deliver housing. The Taoiseach outlined that it would be illogical for this House to fund a new bridge into a site, for example, for €4 million or €5 million but that the houses would not be built for ten years. Any money spent on infrastructure would be done on the basis that housing on adjacent sites would be quickly provided and at an affordable price. That is the aim of the fund. That was what the Taoiseach was referring to, in case there is any confusion.

The Minister, Deputy Coveney, earlier outlined the Government's absolute commitment to resolving the national housing crisis. That crisis is affecting all parts of the housing sector, including the rental sector. Our approach must therefore be holistic and founded on the realisation that all parts of the housing sector are interlinked and interdependent. The reason there are five pillars in the action plan and 84 actions is because we recognise that joined-up thinking is needed right across the system of government, including local authorities.

It was precisely because of continuing rent increases that the Government introduced a package of rent stability and additional housing supply measures in November. The Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2015 introduced a number of measures to address rising rents. With regard to rent stability, the Act provided that the minimum period between rent reviews for tenancies increased from 12 to 24 months. The provision will apply for a four-year period. That is in reference to decisions made by the then Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly.

In addition, the minimum period of notice of new rents was increased from 28 days to 90 days and longer notice periods for the termination of long-term tenancies were introduced. The extension of the period between rent reviews from 12 months to 24 months takes effect from the date of the last review. If a tenant had a rent review in July 2015, the next review would not be until July 2017.

There is, however, no question but that pressures on the rental market remain driven by rising demand, which is a result of the economic recovery, by a lack of supply and by the high costs that highly indebted landlords face in servicing their loans. These pressures are borne out by the data published by the Residential Tenancies Board and in the daft.ierental reports. Fundamentally, the increases in rent have been driven by a mismatch between the additional demand associated with the very welcome economic recovery and a lack of a corresponding response in supply.

Last night it was claimed in the House that it is not a supply issue and that supply would not guarantee lower rents, but it would. That was the case some years ago when there was an over-supply of housing. Deputy Burton mentioned Dunboyne and I mentioned Kilcock last night. Between 2008 and 2014 one could rent a house for between €700 and €900 because there was an over-supply but now the rents there are between €1,100 and €1,300. It is about supply and everything we do is designed to increase supply. It is not a question of ideology in terms of rent security. In fairness, Deputy Cowen referred to the issue as well – we do not want to affect supply adversely. A balance is required. I expect Deputy Burton understands the point. We know that at the moment the balance is tipped the other way and people are faced with very high rents but we also want to increase the activity in the rental sector and to get more people to invest in rental properties and to build housing. With the best will in the world we cannot solve the housing crisis with taxpayers' money alone or through social housing. We do need private sector investment as well.

As I said last night the Rebuilding Ireland strategy is about rebuilding capacity in all local authorities to deliver social housing and not to stop at that, but first to build the capacity back up and during that phase to deliver up to 50,000 social houses. A decision can then be made to increase the number thereafter. The intention is that local authorities would be in a position to deliver 10,000 social housing units a year thereafter. People might decide to go further than that, which is fair enough, but one still cannot do it overnight. It will take time to get there and in the meantime we also need increased provision of properties from the private sector that we can use for social housing and also to provide homes for those who do not qualify for social housing. In the rental sector it is a case of getting the balance right so as not to affect supply adversely.

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