Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On the question of who builds houses, the answer is not real estate investment trusts. I live in the city centre and see their offices. They are not building houses. Builders build houses but sometimes that middle tier is what we mean when we talk about developers. In many cases, we are talking about investment funds. I see many things being built. When we are driven by the policies of developers and investors, although I am not suggesting that about anybody here, they will go for where the best investment is. That is why we have so many empty office buildings all around the city. The investment and development returns from empty office buildings are good, so there are thousands of square feet of empty open-plan office spaces all over the city, because it makes sense for developers and investors. Builders build houses. There is a dawning spirit of returning to the State being the developer and having that direct relationship with builders.That is something everybody wants. Sinn Féin wants it and Fianna Fáil is speaking about it also. We want local authorities to be able to work with builders. We do not necessarily need international financial instruments and the financial market to be required when local and housing authorities can access the finance themselves and can be supported in doing so. I will come to my amendment on that a little later. We have the builders with the necessary skills. We do need to examine apprenticeships and skilling up. We also need to consider investing and the concept of the State being a good employer of, and a good guaranteed source of income for, builders in the provision of public housing. That would be really positive. I would imagine everybody wants that.

With regard to the provision under discussion, I welcome the fact that there is a review. It is because there has been a fuss about this section in advance of the Bill being published that some of the dangers have been averted. It was therefore useful and constructive that there was a fuss in advance, and that is why we are seeing a built-in review. It is why we are seeing a monetary limit set at €70 million. This will help. These will be key measures. I do not assume the market will automatically inflate because the section of market influence will be relatively small. Nonetheless, we do need a mechanism for responding. The Minister of State mentioned that there will be a review. What happens if the review tells us something we do not like? How do we exit? What will be the cooling-down mechanism? I have been trying to suggest an appropriate response if we find that the legislation has a consequence. It may not be that the overall market will inflate but that the deflation we hope we might see from supply-side measures will be less than it might be because of this measure.

It is key that we move towards recognising that one of our policy imperatives should be reducing the cost of houses. That should be an active goal, not just increasing supply. We should actively consider the question of how to reduce the price of houses. I am very happy for the 22,000 families who have got a home but I worry about the next buyers under the scheme having a large amount of debt. They will be in debt based on a housing cost that is unreasonable because the cost of houses in Ireland right now is unreasonable. It is great that they can access mortgages but they are choosing between an unreasonable purchasing cost and an even more unreasonable rental cost. They are torn between two unreasonable situations in accessing a home. I worry that they will be carrying more debt because the prices of houses are set at such a high level. It is a case of the frying pan and fire for many households. I really feel we need to take the heat down on both of those.

I hope that when the Minister of State examines the review mechanism, he might consider in the Dáil what will happen after the review and on the basis of it. If he cannot accept the amendment at this point, he might consider a similar set of tools for the Government to have in response to a review if we have unwanted consequences from this measure.