Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

In terms of real investment in dwellings, the Irish economy registered the fourth largest increase across the 27 EU countries. The recent ESRI publication comparing housing supply across Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales found that on a per capita basis, Ireland and Northern Ireland had the highest rate of house building and Ireland and Scotland had the highest rate of publicly built housing. That is against the backdrop of a very significant population increase, persistent strong economic growth and income growth and huge pressures on housing.

The Government is spending very significant amounts of public capital money on housing. We need more private sector investment. The Housing Commission, which Sinn Féin supported, called for a review of the rent pressure zones. The rent pressure zones are effective in terms of protecting renters and rent increases. However, all of the established literature, and the most recent quarterly bulletin from the ESRI, says that long term, we are restricting the growth of supply in the private market. By the end of 2025, State investment will certainly go close to €9 billion. We are at approximately €8 billion at the moment for State expenditure on housing. The Department of Finance says we need approximately €20 billion to get to the targets of what we need and the targets that everybody in the House is agreed on.

The Opposition is so lacking in any initiative in terms of how we bring private sector investment in. It is a serious issue.

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