Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is a need to build up supply and capacity across all tenures. Housing for All will deliver, and is delivering, the single biggest social housing programme in the history of the State. It is doing that.

It will deliver thousands of new social homes this year. I believe in homeownership but I do not believe Sinn Féin does. Sinn Féin has railed against the help to buy scheme which has helped more than 30,000 households to get a deposit together to buy a home. Over the past 12 months, first-time buyers comprised the largest proportion of people drawing down mortgages. We need to get affordability into the market. How do we do that? The first home scheme launched last Thursday but Sinn Féin's motion called for it to be scrapped. I sometimes get a sense from the main Opposition spokesperson, in particular, that he does not want to see progress in this space. He does not want to see a scheme that works. Since last Thursday, we have had hundreds of applications. Sinn Féin's initial criticism of this was that it would be a second mortgage and that the interest rates was going to be at 6%, 7% or 8%. It is not a mortgage-based product; it is equity. The State is stepping in to assist those people who have been locked out of the-----

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