Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

Regarding real investment in dwellings, the Irish economy registered the fourth largest increase across the 27 EU countries between 2020 and 2024. The House may be interested to know that a recent Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, publication in 2024 comparing housing supply across Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales found that Ireland and Northern Ireland had the highest rate of housebuilding per capita and that Ireland and Scotland had the highest rate of publicly built housing. There is significant investment but it simply is not enough. That is why we need the private sector investment. I know the Deputy is against pension funds and institutional funds, but I do not see how we can get to the €20 billion investment required if we do not bring in substantial private sector investment to supplement record levels of public expenditure on housing, the likes of which we have not seen since the 1980s.

See this speech in context