Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The real urgency is that people want low rent. Those caught in the rental sector are the ones who are caught - our younger generation. Fr. Peter McVerry, who I trust on this, said today that the primary responsibility for social housing lies with the Government and that it is falling short. Regarding all this talk about the numbers, if we parse it down, it is falling short because it is relying on the market. We are agreed. The Taoiseach has just said that cost-rental is the particular way to tackle that rental sector. It has the advantage of the land cost and the developer's margin not being included so the rent is reduced by about 35%. We know from the analysis carried out by the National Economic and Social Council and others that it is the best system because it will allow us ongoing funding through a cyclical counter cyclical period. We can bring the cost down because it will be cheaper for us to build than rely on the private sector, which is not reliable. Again, I go back to the question of State lands. I welcome John Moran's arrival in that office and I hope he does a good job. We will support him. We need to do this and not just give a fat cheque to the private sector for 25 years where we are paying over the odds. We need also to start recognising that we can do this ourselves and build cost-rental housing that is high-quality, close to the centre and delivers for a variety of different people - a mix of people in social and public housing - and at the end of it, we own the asset, not a private operator. This is the fundamental issue of our time. The Government is privatising everything. We want certain things to be in public ownership and social housing should be in public ownership for use forever and a day for the people of Ireland. In respect of small example projects on State lands, will the Taoiseach give the Land Development Agency a target of 50% cost-rental and 50% social housing? That is the way to rescue those people in the rental crisis.

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