Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is a €310 million affordable housing programme, which was agreed in the previous budget. It will take some time to deliver but it is progressing.

It is important not to stigmatise HAP and RAS. The whole point of HAP is to provide more certainty than was previously the case with rent allowance payments. Approximately 300 new HAP tenancies are put in place per week, which provide affordable accommodation in the private rental market. We want more people who seek conventional social housing to be able to get it but the only way we can ensure that will happen is to deliver on the build programme that is under way. It is well funded and resourced. We are spending billions of euro building a significant increase in the social housing stock. It is happening and we can see it in our cities and other parts of the country.

The Deputy calls for State intervention as if it is not already happening. We have introduced rent pressure zones, which are the alternative to rent freezes because they limit rent inflation, and we have extended the powers of rent pressure zones to include cuckoo funds in respect of the rent they charge after the initial rent is set. We are intervening in many areas in the housing market but we need to be careful our interventions are not counterproductive, as many of the interventions the Deputy proposes would be.

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