Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

One unfortunate phenomenon in recent years has been the conflation in people's minds of prefabricated housing and modular housing. High-quality modular housing is a permanent housing solution. Prefabricated models like the prefabs provided for Ukrainian refugees were expensive and had a poor BER rating of C. These modern modular housing units are permanent solutions and are extremely energy efficient. By setting up a supply and manufacturing line, it is possible to manufacture houses every day of the week for 12 months of the year. This is the beauty of this approach. One of these homes can be provided five times faster than producing an on-site house.

I have looked at some of the research internationally and obstructions are pushed in the way of modular housing. Traditional building companies are slow to adopt the idea of modular housing. It is seen as a threat or disruption to traditional building supply. We must look at the provision of modular housing or off-site housing construction in a different light.

I am going to focus on the financial aspect. In a time when we are under threat from tariffs from Trump and we need to be counterintuitive and invest in our economy, especially in our indigenous industries and particularly where there is an identifiable need to provide homes, we must look at a different relationship between the State, including the Department of housing, the Department of Education and the OPW, and the modular construction industry. The financial model is different. It must be front-loaded. There must be cash flow because people are continuously employed on site.

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