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

First, 86% of landlords own one to two properties. As we lost approximately 3,870 landlords, who went out of the market in 2020, it is a contracting market. Supply is the key. You cannot take €1 billion out of the HAP tomorrow morning. The Deputy knows that. It is not that simple. There are tenancies tied up in HAP for many years now. You cannot simply replace that overnight or pretend you can. I do not think the Deputy should suggest that. Nor can you do that over the next two or three years but I will accept that the more we build, the less reliance on HAP and other forms of current funding in which the State is currently engaged in terms of rent.

I agree with the Deputy that we want to build more social housing. I said earlier the issue will not be resources in the context of the summer economic statement. There is no row. The issue will not be resources. The issue will be delivery across the system in terms of getting more houses built in the public sector, both social housing and on the affordable side, where the State is and will become involved through the Land Development Agency and other avenues, as well as through local authorities in terms of serviced sites funds, for example, in which the State is investing significantly. The Minister has undertaken an initiative in that respect.

The State is now the biggest actor in terms of housing with some €3.3 billion this year alone. The issue will not be resources; it will be delivery on the ground. We need supply. This year, we will be lucky to get to 18,000 units. Obviously, Covid-19 has had an impact. It has taken approximately 5,000 to 6,000 units out of what would have been built and likewise last year. Over the past number of years, we have not been at the level of house construction at which we need to be. Covid-19 has clearly has interrupted the momentum around house building but we can get it back.

All energies are now focused on getting more houses built. If we get more houses built, we can ease pressures on the rent market. The Minister's initiative to limit the increases in rent to the rate of inflation is significant and will make a difference over time. Key to this is getting the number of houses built in this country significantly up by the State and the private sector. That needs to happen. We need far more houses built than are currently being built. That means building up capacity, getting skills back into the construction area and using every possible avenue available to us to get more State social houses and affordable houses built. We are up for that as a Government. That is what we want to do.

The issue will be one of delivery. Across local authorities, people will have to swallow hard and vote for projects even if they do not measure up to the purity of a person's particular position on a given project.

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