Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I take issue with what Senator Ó Domhnaill said regarding the current housing policy. I do agree and accept that we need to have a more comprehensive debate on the issue of housing but there are a few points to remember. We would now have 25,000 extra social housing units if Fianna Fáil had not rowed back on the Planning and Development Act, Part V, contribution to housing supply. We would not have bankrupt developers had it not been for the collapse of the economy under Fianna Fáil’s leadership. We would not have a banking system now that will not lend to those developers who survived the crash if the banking system had not collapsed under a Fianna Fáil Government.

The bottom line remains, as Governor Honohan said at the finance committee, that there is an equity gap. It is a major issue that developers can only borrow approximately 60% of the funds they need in order to construct the numbers of units we require. The proposal - the accuracy of which we do not know, as I only read about it in this morning's Irish Independent- does suggest that the Government is going to take steps to address the equity gap which developers face. We had a construction sector that constituted 20% of the economy - way over and above a healthy percentage for such a sector in any developed economy - which collapsed to 5%. If that sector is to return to a normal rate of 10% or 11% of the economy then this Government or another is going to have to help it and that is a fact.