State 'would prefer to own homes rather than subsidising rentals' but it would cost 'billions' 

All of the department’s efforts were geared towards 'removing barriers' preventing local authorities and approved housing bodies from delivering homes, Public Accounts Committee told. File picture: Larry Cummins

The head of the Department of Housing has said the State would prefer to own homes rather than subsidising rentals, but that doing so would cost “many, many billions”.

Graham Doyle, secretary general of the department, refused to be drawn on whether he considered the Hap and Ras rental subsidies as representing poor value for money. Instead, he told members of the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday that “we would much prefer to own new homes”.