Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the house. He faces a daunting task. We could spend all our time giving out about what previous Governments should and should not have done.Here we are, however, so let us move forward. This Bill is the first ever to focus solely on affordable housing, which cannot be a bad thing. People like to focus their energy on poking holes in things but we must focus on solutions. I want to focus on cost rental, a new phenomenon in Ireland based on the Vienna model, to which the Bill gives legal status.

I do not believe the Irish obsession with fixture of tenure is solely the result of being colonised. It goes back to James Larkin and those before him. As a tenant for many years, I always worried about the landlord wishing me good luck and telling me I had to move out. I was always afraid to hang pictures or paint the walls or anything. I ended up living in one house for ten years but I never had security. The lack of security creates a latent stress that many people carry all the time.

Cost rental is a very important model. I am proud of the Green Party's work on this issue and that the Government has taken it on board and will give it legal status. It basically means that market value will not dictate the cost of living in cost rental properties. This housing will be supplied by the AHBs through the LDA. I hate using initialisms. I refer to the housing boards. What does the "A" in AHB stand for again?