Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy once again for raising this important issue. I acknowledge that the public service and many private businesses are struggling to recruit and retain staff, especially in Dublin, but also all over the country. Of course, housing is a factor in that - the high cost of housing and rent and the sheer non-availability of anywhere to rent. However, it is also appropriate to mention some of the facts. Notwithstanding all that, there are 2.55 million people at work in Ireland, more than ever was the case previously. The number of teachers employed in our education sector and the number of doctors and nurses employed in our health service is many more than it was five or ten years ago and, therefore, it is not the case that we have fewer nurses working in the public health service or fewer teachers working in the public sector than was the case five or ten years ago. Those numbers continue to increase but there is a real problem recruiting and retaining people for lots of different reasons. The availability and cost of housing are part of that.

I heard the Deputy's analysis. We should not forget that the housing assistance payment, HAP, was created by a Fine Gael-Labour Government. It was brought in when Labour was in government and it is important to acknowledge that as part of any analysis of housing. The HAP is very useful for people. A very important decision we made recently was to increase the income limits for social housing. This means more people will qualify for social housing, particularly working people who did not qualify previously because they earned a bit above the limit. More people will qualify for the HAP, which is a good thing because it will help them to pay their rent. Previously they got no help with their rent.

I agree with the Deputy in respect of sites that are not being developed and planning permissions that are not being activated. There is planning permission for approximately 70,000 new homes, most of which are apartments and most of which are in our cities. We need a carrot-and-stick approach because it is not always about the stick or the carrot. Sometimes there is a viability issue. We have introduced the derelict sites levy and will bring in the zoned land tax to tax land that is zoned and is not being developed. We are bringing in the vacant property tax so that if somebody has an empty property that is habitable, there will be an additional tax.

In terms of viability, which is the carrot, we have the Croí Cónaithe (cities) scheme to make apartment developments more viable and the grant of between €30,000 and €50,000 to help people turn derelict properties into habitable ones while the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is using government money to subsidise the building of student accommodation on campuses around the country so we are pursuing a carrot-and-stick approach where sites are not being developed and planning permissions are not being activated.

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