Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Housing policy over the past decade has failed. There has been an excessive reliance on developers and investment funds to deliver supply since the State withdrew from the housing market. Today's housing crisis is causing serious social dislocation. It is damaging the life prospects and chances of many workers and families in our communities. It is also damaging for the competitiveness of the economy, as I mentioned earlier. It is the natural outworking of an unnatural and damaging housing policy pursued by the Government. The policy is shaped not only by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage but also by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Professor McQuinn of the ESRI has demonstrated that even under conservative estimates, the Exchequer could raise €4 billion each year in additional resources on a prudent and sustainable basis. That would be enough to double the level of capital investment in housing from €2 billion to €4 billion in budget 2022. Sinn Féin has been making that argument for years and the only reason for the Minister to oppose it would be on ideological grounds. I ask him to commit to doing what the ESRI is calling for, that is, doubling the capital investment in housing and start to end the housing crisis that the Government's policies have caused and deepened over recent years.

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