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

If he is, the Government does not get involved. The Government has no direct involvement in its decisions in terms of its investments.

I will make a broader point. Capital is important to create building and to get housing and residential units going. The State provides the bulk of it right now in terms of allocating funding to local authorities and approved housing bodies to get housing built. Our preference is for direct builds. We want to get as much social housing provided as we possibly can. Over the years, there have been other types of development that have been facilitated, such as student accommodation, through a variety of means. We need to get supply up overall. There is a role for both public investment and private investment in respect of getting the overall supply of residential units into the marketplace.

See this speech in context