Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister back to the House. I welcome his statement that affordable and cost rental will be in place this year, with the passage of this Bill. That is great news and the quicker we can get this Bill through, the better. It is great news to see that will be in place.

There were people who fell through the net before this. I refer to people who were working and did not qualify for social housing and were not earning enough for an affordable house. I hope and presume that with the passage of this legislation, this issue will be addressed. I notice from the Minister's indication that this will be the case. If that is the case, it is great news because there was a cohort of people out there who fell between the two stools. The Minister also mentioned the LDA and the changes which have been made to the Land Development Agency Bill 2021. How will the changes made to the LDA affect the passage of this Bill? Will there will be a different mix of social, affordable and private homes because of changes which will be made?

On developers and big developers, somebody has to build houses. Whether they are big or small developers, it is all welcome because a house is a house. Large developers built houses at the lower end of the market as well. That has to be welcomed. There is an abhorrence of developers. It is wrong, because we need developers. I see that we cannot get tradespeople at present. Developers are in an awful predicament in terms of getting the workforce of carpenters, plumbers and blocklayers. There is a huge shortage of them and this is putting an increasing cost on developers. Developers are coming out the poor relation of all of this. I have to say I have great sympathy for them in trying to get a workforce in place which is not there.It is a great credit to them for persisting and moving ahead in very difficult times. Covid has been very difficult for developers as well as everybody else.