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

They might be doing it in the best interests of housing but you cannot say one thing and then have it both ways, as Deputy Ó Broin has been doing serially. I will look at that and I will discuss with the Deputy mechanisms around utilising that €160 billion he spoke about and how we release more private sector capital into housing.

That is what I have been saying since this Government was formed. That is what I have been condemned for, by the Deputy's colleagues and others, but it is a simple truism. The State will not be able to spend the €20 billion to get to the 50,000 houses per annum. Maybe we can go over €6 billion - there will be discussions within Cabinet - but you are not going to get to the levels required. Therefore, we have to be creative.

Yesterday's housing sub-committee also indicated that will be a number of other areas that we are now going to pursue in respect of activating and incentivising private sector development, particularly on brownfield sites. In the previous Government, all of us agreed on sustainable housing development. Key to that was the idea that we would develop brownfield sites. They have not taken off. Prior to that, they had not taken off the previous ten or 15 years. They make sense, given services available, given the rejuvenation of cities, etc. As far as I am concerned, everything has to be considered to enable us to get brownfield sites developed, in particular in the cities.

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