Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I fundamentally disagree with the Senator's description of housing policy being dictated by the market. Macro-prudential rules are not being dictated by the market. The State spending €4.1 billion on building homes directly or helping to get them built is not being dictated by the market. Senator Casey spoke about work happening in his community. The work Dublin City Council is doing in directly building new homes in the heart of our city centre is not being dictated by the market. The role of approved housing bodies is not an example of the Government or citizens' housing needs being dictated by the market.

The Senator's description of housing policy and how it is being developed in our country is fundamentally wrong. It does not recognise the many interventions being made by the State. The Land Development Agency, planning regulations and the work of our local authorities are not led by the market. They are trying to channel the market into helping deliver more homes in the right places. The Senator spoke about those who are involved in building homes for profit. What I am about to say feels nearly radical but somebody earning a profit is not a bad thing. Those who work in our private sector, those who create companies, those who go to work in companies, entrepreneurs, small builders and big builders work really hard at what they do. They have an expectation that if they work hard, whether they be somebody who is running a building company, a developer or a hotelier, they will earn a reward for their efforts. In some of the debates that gain a lot of traction within our politics and media, it feels at times as if we are losing sight of the fact that those who work hard, in whatever part of the economy they are working in, have a legitimate expectation to earn a return on their efforts. That coexists with the Government playing a huge role in building homes in our country. To describe what we are doing as dictated by the market does not recognise all the things that are being done by this Government, or were done by previous Governments, to try to ensure we have a housing policy that meets more of the needs of our citizens more often. However, I acknowledge all the difficulties and challenges we face at the moment and how much more we need to do.

On the recommendation, I will go back to the point I made earlier. Some 13% of all house transactions in Ireland in 2020 were covered by the help-to-buy scheme. If it is playing any role in contributing to house price inflation, at 13% it is a small one. The far bigger issue here is constraint of supply. We need the private sector to play a role in increasing supply but we also need an active State doing its part too. That is what is happening. We want to do it quicker and better but this is not a housing policy that is dictated by the market.