Like others, I believe we have identified what was laid out at the weekend in terms of the housing crisis. The idea of global investment funds purchasing houses that were meant to be for first-time buyers has been responded to with shock. That shock has turned into outrage because it seems this practice is about to continue unabated. I welcome the position that the Taoiseach and the Minister have taken and their intention to move quickly.

I would welcome a debate on housing generally but also on this specific matter, but it would be remiss of us if we were to ignore the issues around the funding of housing. As with everything one wants to purchase, money is at the root of this situation. Indeed, it affects every aspect of it. Our banking system is not fit for purpose. Two banking operations that provided some level of competition are now exiting. With their exit, one wonders what competition will be left. Small, medium and, in some cases, large builders are unable to get funding from banking institutions to build houses in the first instance. They are left with no choice but to seek the support of external funds. Maybe that was all right for a while, but the funds got greedy. They were not happy with the significant interest rates they got from house builders. They wanted to be the providers of equity to assist the builder and, in the early stages, it looked like they wanted to be the facilities providing funds to those who wanted to purchase the houses, but even being the funder on both ends was not enough. They now want to own the properties at the end. This has to be curbed, and I suspect it will be, but we will still be left with a gap in terms of where the money comes from. Unless we reform our banking system in some way, we will be left as we were previously with a lack of houses because builders will not be able to access funding to build them in the first instance. It is a vicious circle. Unless we address both aspects of it, we will have a problem. I suggest that we have a debate on the matter at the earliest opportunity.

I concur with my colleague, Deputy Dooley, on the need for a debate with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage on what is an important issue for society, that being, how to ensure we provide enough housing. I spoke about this issue two weeks ago in terms of the cost of building, including materials and labour. In addition to cement and insulation, that the cost of timber has increased by 40% in the past six months and the cost of steel by 48% - the cost of labour has gone that way too - means that houses will become very unaffordable. It is a supply issue. Builders throughout the country cannot get access to cash, so they will not develop sites. That is the unfortunate dilemma. They had been entering into agreements with local authorities or housing agencies to purchase sites. That was the only way they could get their developments off the ground. The knock-on effect was that the number of properties left for first-time buyers was limited. There are so many issues with the housing market that require meaningful debate.

An issue in my part of the world is that stock that was built for residential housing is now being used primarily as Airbnb properties. Their owners will get €1,000 per week for the next 16 weeks, but the properties will be left idle for the rest of the year. There were 300 or 400 such properties on Airbnb's website this morning. That is a deficit in the rental market, which has a major impact on our provision of housing.

The Planning Regulator has an unusual view of one-off housing.

One-off housing is an important party of our society. It keeps rural parishes alive. However, the Planning Regulator has a totally different view of it. We need a meaningful debate on core issues with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, so that we can get some movement on this issue. This is going to be an issue for the next decade if we do not try to sort it out.