Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I always take the advice of Deputy Durkan seriously on matters like this. The point he makes highlights the balance that the Government must strike. On one hand there is a level of housing need that must be met. Deputy Boyd Barrett focused on it earlier, and Deputies Burton and Durkan did so in the last set of questions to me. We must build more homes to meet the existing housing need. On the other hand, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has warned that if too many homes are built at a particular point, and specifically if a level of workers is not available to build them, it would mean that our efforts to meet the level of housing need could in itself end up being an inflationary pressure.

We are not at that point because we are still seeing the housing sector beginning to grow. The number of new homes being built is increasing. To deal with Deputy Burton's points, of course I track what is happening with the price of land, and this is the reason we made a change with the derelict site levy in place, and which is increasing. The Deputy also made a point on apprenticeships and I want to see the construction sector deliver more of these. We have an apprenticeship programme in place for it and although we have made great progress in dealing with youth unemployment - the Deputy was heavily involved with the most difficult phase of that - we still have young people who want to and can work. The change we have made in increasing the employers' PRSI levy for next year will lead to an additional 10,000 apprenticeships in our economy. The construction sector needs to play a role now in ensuring the framework will allow more young people to enter that industry.

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