Matt Cooper had several guests in to discuss the new proposal for 800 sites owned by the government to be released in order to provide new housing.

There was  Jim Bainam from the Department of Housing, Karl Deeter from Irish Mortgage Brokers and Sinn Fein TD Eoin O’Brionn.

There were differences of opinion in terms of the ‘how’ regarding the sites, in terms of ‘how they are delivered’ via housing bodies, local authorities or privately, but all of the panellists were positive about a move to increase housing supply.

The main thing to remember in our view, is that it doesn’t really matter who builds what because the local authority remain the tax authority on all housing so they can get the housing with no capital outlay and then capture the property tax in future years if a private developer does it.