Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)

I welcome the Minister to this debate on housing. He says he wants to deliver more private homes across the country. I agree that we need those houses, but there is another way. He has completely sacrificed renters in order to unlock this, but there is another way. I know people of my age across Mayo - people I play football with - who have planning permission and who were given prices by their builders, but they are not building. This is because of the cost of building. What has the Minister done for those people? He has done nothing since he came to office. His predecessor did nothing for those people either. We need to address the cost of building. We can do that by removing the VAT on construction. The North of Ireland does this. I ask the Minister to engage with this proposal. It would make a dramatic impact in reducing the cost of building. Last year, the State took in €3 billion in the middle of housing crisis. I ask the Minister to give some of this back to unlock the potential that exists.

Development levies, Irish Water connections, ESB connections and bonds to local authorities are precluding developers from taking the risk of building houses. The other aspect relates to planning. It can cost in the region of €100,000 to get planning permission over the line. These are practical suggestions that the Minister could implement in the morning if he wanted to unlock private housing delivery across the country.

There is an elephant in the room when it comes to housing. Everyone in opposition and in government is entirely focused on discussions on the supply side of this equation, and the Minister has failed in that regard. We must also address the demand issue and the immigration issue. For example, in 2014-15, the State was issuing in the region of 10,000 work permits a year. However, we are now issuing in excess of 40,000 employment visas in the State. The number of residency permits has also ballooned. I appreciate that the labour market is hot and that these immigrants are providing value in the market, but this is putting immense pressure on services and, in particular, housing. I have not heard the Minister discuss that yet, even though this is a way to address and alleviate the difficulties and provide part of the solution at least. In the absence of supply and as we are so far short of our targets, this is something we should consider.

I am aware of international students who have come to the country seeking an education and got a visa. They had to return home because there was no place to live. It is about time for the Minister to engage with his colleagues in government to manage this process. We need to provide visas where there is a critical need, for example, in the construction industry, in healthcare and in other sectors of the economy. However, it is shocking that this is a part of the equation that is not even being discussed by the Government.

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