Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We discussed that issue in detail on Committee Stage of the Finance Bill and I gave a commitment that the officials in my Department would examine it in the context of the TSG papers. On the issue of the supply of homes, we need to have a functioning private rental sector. We are providing approximately €5 billion of capital to build more homes, including public homes, cost-rental homes and affordable purchase homes, and the private sector is adding perhaps another €10 billion to that to build private housing in our country. We need to have rental accommodation available not just through institutional investors building big blocks of rental accommodation, and they have a role to play, but in small towns and villages around Ireland where we need one or two units around housing estates and in settlements so there is accommodation available. I believe this measure, which is a modest measure, will be a factor in helping to retain some small-scale landlords in the market who would otherwise be intending to leave.

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