Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I am not sure it would be quite so expensive or that there are always cheap options. I suggest we do a little sum. We are spending approximately €500 million and the 95,000 households can be rounded up to 100,000. At an average cost of €150,000 per house built by a local authority, the total is €15 billion. It will be 30 years before we spend €15 billion housing those 100,000 households. As such, the option might not be the dearest. Indeed, it might be cheaper than building a house and handing it over. The question is whether the social outcome is as good. The debate should centre on what is best for the tenant.

The rental accommodation scheme, RAS, has many attractions. Transferring people onto long-term tenancies after two years provides them with security in their houses. It also allows the prospective tenant to choose the property and removes social segregation, as someone can choose an available property in a mixed area. It is better than rent allowance because it is more secure.

I am not convinced that there is a cheap way to house 100,000 tenancies. After a certain time, people are entitled to a more permanent arrangement for their social good. I must ask myself which is better. Should I put people into large, clustered housing estates and segregate everyone or should they be mixed around, which is the current tendency? There are mixed opinions on this question, as some permanent residents do not like tenanted residents. The former might prefer long-term tenanted residents, people with an interest in the properties in which they live, over short-term tenanted residents who do not care about the condition of the properties, whether they are painted and so on.

Many issues must be discussed, although they are more proper to a housing debate. It is useful for us to consider this particular payment in the social context as opposed to in terms of its cost alone. The cost is not too expensive, since borrowing €15 billion tomorrow to house 100,000 families would not leave one with much change. Some people's housing needs are short term. Given family formations and so on, short-term accommodation will always be required.