Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are a couple of different aspects here, namely the Housing Commission report, to which the Deputy referred, and rental supports. Today, the Government will publish the Housing Commission report. In an effort to be helpful to the House and to inform debate on this, the Minister will also publish alongside it an initial assessment of where we are at with a number of the actions. This is a good thing to do and will allow us to have an informed debate. The Deputy will see that a number of recommendations are already under way.

The Housing Commission has been referenced a great deal in the past 24 hours. It is important to remind ourselves of what it was tasked to do. Its terms of reference state:

The commission will consider long-term housing policy post 2030 and examine how to build on the policy changes outlined in Housing for All and related Government policies.

The idea was to arrive at a long-term approach to housing and identify where we want to get to between 2030 and 2050, what housing policy needs to look at and the areas in respect of which resets will be required. That has been missed from any analysis or commentary so far today.

The Housing Commission report definitely contains some good ideas, but also some challenging ones. I think the Deputy will find those challenging and we will find them challenging. There will be a legitimate debate on them. There are issues relating to reference rents. Could that actually see people's rents being higher than in the rent pressure zones? It has worked in one European country, but how would it work in an Irish context? There are issues in respect of incentivising landlords in order to have a viable rental sector. Does the Deputy believe that is a good idea? Is it a good idea? Let us debate those issues as well.

On diverse funding, there is a need for Exchequer funding but there is also an acknowledgement that there is a need for more than just that. There are also disagreements and different points of view even among members of the commission on a number of the recommendations. This report will not just be challenging for Government - it is good to be challenged on the biggest societal issue we face - but it will also be challenging for the Opposition and for policymakers. Let us publish the report and have the opportunity to scrutinise it, and let us take matters from there.

This report is very useful and helpful, and I thank the Commission for its work. While all of this is going on today, there are people who need help in the here and now. That is why I want people at home to know that on every working day in Ireland so far this year, 337 homes have commenced construction. Every single week, almost 500 people have drawn down mortgages for their first homes. Last year, we saw the largest number of social homes provided since the 1970s. This is what the graph looks like when talking about direct social house building in Ireland. The year 2011, the year my party came into government, tends to be referenced a great deal. From 2011 up to now, there has been a significant increase by any objective or fair analysis.

The Deputy has a point in the context of moving people from rental supports into secure tenures. I agree with her in that regard. That is why we need to continue to build more social homes, more affordable homes and more cost-rental homes. I get that. What is disingenuous, and I say this respectively, is to talk about the €10 billion to which the Deputy referred. She knows well that €3.2 billion of that was spent on rent supplement, €1.8 billion was spent on RAS and €3.5 billion was spent on HAP. Every year, you could paper the walls of Dáil Éireann with press releases and statements from Sinn Féin TDs asking us to increase the limits and to spend more.

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