Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

As Deputy Joe Higgins knows, house price increases are primarily driven by the increase in demand for housing which has resulted from the unprecedented growth in recent years in the population and the economy. Now that we have stopped mass emigration by working class people, unemployed trade unionists and those who lived in working class communities who had to seek refuge in Australia, Canada, the United States and Britain, people are again living in the working class areas which the Deputy and I represent. Thankfully, we have moved away from the terrible blight which affected the country from the 1920s to the end of the 1980s.

The Government has taken action across a wide front to maximise access to home ownership. Thankfully, we have one of the highest home ownerships in the modern world, achieved in particular through measures which promoted a supply of housing adequate to meet demand. While house prices have increased, the cost of mortgage repayments, growth in incomes, employment, lower taxes, interest rates and availability of finance have had a positive impact on affordability. Typical outgoing as a percentage of income remains better than the position of the late 1980s, as evidenced by the report published in recent days. People are taking longer term mortgages, which reduces annual outgoings. Investment in infrastructure, streamlined planning and more effective use of land have produced record housing output. Almost 81,000 houses were built in 2005 whereas ten years ago the figure was fewer than 30,000. As a result we are producing new houses at a much faster rate than other countries. Home ownership is rising and some 20 new homes are produced annually per 1,000 of population compared to five per 1,000 in the EU. Thankfully, unlike in large parts of the EU, people are buying houses.

See this speech in context