Eoghan Harris (Independent)

I do not need five minutes. I congratulate the Minister of State, whom I have always admired very much as an independent, tough and clear-minded local politician, on the tough job he is doing. I ask him to think outside the box on his watch. One of the troubles of housing is that it has always been ideologically trammelled. We have had two great historical interventions. We had the great municipal buildings of the late 19th century into the 20th century. We then had Fianna Fáil's powerful intervention in Dublin involving the clearance of the slums and we have had the great local authority schemes. I am not convinced that social housing and affordable housing interventions represent the way to go. There is a danger of antagonising people who have struggled hard. There is no point in pretending that class antagonisms do not exist and trying to push them aside never works. It creates all sorts of problems. The trick always is to enable people to buy houses without social stigma. I ask the Minister of State to encourage new thinking to allow interventions by the State to help people on a confidential and means-tested basis to get into the housing market without creating tensions and flashpoints, and all the carry on with affordable housing, which is basically being abused by builders and developers.

The issue of stamp duty should be addressed firmly. Correctives in the market are all very well. However, the failure to reform stamp duty is dragging down the market. To give the market a boost and help the small and medium builders, I ask the Minister of State to consider seriously talking to the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance about VAT. VAT has become so sacred that nobody ever thinks it can be touched. A slight adjustment in VAT on building supplies to the building industry might give medium and smaller builders and the people who want to build for themselves the boost the industry badly needs.