Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

What we have now in housing policy is an interventionist approach in terms of the State's role in social housing and the Minister's affordability legislation. These provide for a range of schemes where the State is getting directly involved in building affordable housing, not just social housing. It is through a range of supports, either through the serviced sites fund, the shared equity scheme or others, that the State is actually intervening to provide. The cost-rental scheme is there too which, again, is State intervention. I have already referenced the massive social housing side.

The Ministers will deal with the issues which have arisen in respect of investment funds. They were brought in in 2013 to bring investment to get apartment blocks built in high-density areas in cities. Those are the origins of this. From our perspective in the past ten months, the Cabinet committee on housing has met on a number of occasions. The entire focus has been around affordability. We have dealt with the social housing allocation and the budget was quite transformative in terms of the €3.3 billion allocated.

That marks an interventionist approach from the Government. The issue, however, is that we are not building enough houses. There is an issue in terms of development finance for house building. That is the other side of the equation on which we need to work in terms of making sure that the cost of borrowing in respect of housing projects is at a level that makes projects viable. For example, the Government is looking at how we can get greater development in brownfield sites in cities which makes sense from the perspective of climate change and developing compact cities in terms of public transport, services and so forth.

A comprehensive approach is being taken. For example, the urban regeneration fund of €1.2 billion is designed to underpin greater residential development in our cities and in large urban areas. The bulk of the investment from the State is going towards that. We will deal with the issues which have arisen whereby we do not want the investment funds crowding out first-time buyers or moving into suburban housing estates. A combination of measures will be taken. The Ministers are working through that now and will come back to the Government on it.

The Deputy should be in no doubt that the Government is the biggest player in housing market in terms of investment and intervention. We need more supply, however.

See this speech in context