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

I would point out that the previous Government carried out a review of the rental sector last year. Following on from that, it requested the Housing Agency to conduct a specific review of the operation of the RPZ scheme. It is doing that. The review will be concluded by the end of quarter 1. That is the intended conclusion date. As the Deputy knows, the legislation that gave rise to the RPZs is due to expire by the end of 2025.

There are a number of options. We can extend it or we can examine it, which is what the Housing Commission asked us to do. The Deputy was very strong in stating the Government had ignored the Housing Commission. I kind of always suspected there was a shallowness to that attack. The bottom line is that the Housing Commission had been very clear that we should look at the matter in detail and that we should look in detail at the German system of what is called reference rent pricing. That system may not suit us. To be fair to the Housing Commission, it asked that we do it in an evidence-based way, which is what will happen.

People in the House condemned Government for not responding to the Housing Commission. Housing is the number one issue in this country. The Deputy has no monopoly on empathy for those who are struggling to get a house. That is why we dramatically increased the number of social homes in the past four years. It was a dramatic increase, compared with what had been happening in previous years. We have increased the allocation from Government to social housing quite significantly. Where we want to get to is 10,000 per annum for the long term - constructed by local authorities - and affordable homes. We have to have a strong pipeline of social housing. That will require ongoing State investment. We want to continue that focus.

We have prioritised and put a lot of investment into affordable housing, in terms of cost rental, etc., by means of a variety of schemes. We brought in capital grants in respect of derelict homes or homes that are vacant to allow couples and other people to buy such homes. The State is playing its part. It is investing hugely in the housing market, and that will continue.

If everybody accepts the ESRI figures, which suggested that we needed to get to 50,000 for the next number of years per annum, we have a big leap to make. What has struck me about the debate so far-----

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