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

I met Uisce Éireann a few months ago and it has a work programme. Understandably, it prioritises wastewater investments that will result in the greatest return in new homes, new housing estates and developments and new industry. I am aware, and I hear this from my Deputies and councillors all over the country, that a number of small towns and villages around the country are constrained and cannot have any natural growth or even build a small number of houses because of the need to invest more in wastewater. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has a scheme that is targeted at the small towns and villages. In the run-up to the revised national development plan ceilings we can see if it is possible to increase the budget for Irish Water. I would be in favour of doing that but there are capacity constraints. We would want to increase the budget by enough that we get more and do not just drive up the cost of things, which is always a risk when we are hitting capacity constraints across the economy.

Any time we talk about underspends in the housing budget it is disingenuous not to acknowledge that it is the biggest housing budget ever, certainly in cash terms, amounting to €4.5 billion per year. That is the context to any underspend. There was a massive increase in the housing budget and that is the context under which underspends occur. What are we doing to try to avoid a repeat of that this year? We are reallocating funding earlier in the year. We are trying to figure out earlier in the year if projects are slow or stalled and then reallocating it to projects that can be sped up, which is what we want to do.

On the comments made by Deputies, we should acknowledge that house prices are, at long last, falling in Ireland. They have been falling for several months and probably peaked last year. They peaked at the same level they peaked at roughly 14 years ago, which is still too high, but it is encouraging to see house prices coming down in this city and across the country.

Deputy McAuliffe asked about the tenant in situscheme and spoke about going further. I would be sympathetic to his sentiments in that regard. We have told local authorities there is a budget in place to buy 1,500 homes where the landlord is selling up. If they can meet that budget, we are well disposed to increasing the figure and allowing them to buy more. We should not be too hung up on where somebody is on the housing list. If a property can be bought by a council or an AHB and that person can be given a more secure and long-term tenancy, that is a good thing and we should not get hung up on where they are on the housing list. We also should not lose sight of the fact that when landlords are selling up, the person they often sell to is a first-time buyer or a family trading up, which can be a good thing too. The underlying problem is just an inadequate amount of housing. Until we clear that deficit of about 250,000 missing homes, we will continue to have these problems.

Deputies raised some of the issues with the tenant in situscheme. I will endeavour to examine them with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. I know that complications and anomalies arise where there are multiple tenants, and we have not really figured out the right way to deal with that. We are aware of it and will see if we can come up with solutions. The same thing, I think, arises on Deputy Boyd Barrett's question about the possibility of a first refusal for councils or AHBs. Another option is capital gains tax exemption. That might make it more attractive to sell to the council or the AHB.

I do not know the answers to the questions about the masts or Carlinn Hall but I will check out those matters and come back to the Deputies.

Finally, in response to Deputy Barry, I am aware of the court decision in Tullamore. It is potentially significant but could be appealed as well. We will see what happens if it is, but I know that the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, is particularly concerned about people who have very high mortgage rates with non-bank lenders. He is looking at options as to how we can help and be more proactive in how the State can help.

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