Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With respect the Deputy she has been very short with proposals or options for the housing supply side. She has not put anything forward. There will be no break in house building. There are record levels of house building going on right now. If the Deputy had read the progress report this was very clear. Last year 30,000 houses were built. This is a 45% increase on 2021. We need balance in the debate and I respectfully ask that there would be some acknowledgement at least of the progress in house building and supply. Some 25,000 first-time buyers drew down mortgages in 2022. This is the highest number since 2008. There were 6,716 new dwelling completions in the first quarter. We are having record levels of completions and record levels of commencements. This is 19% up on the first quarter of 2022. In the year to April 2023 some 50,000 homes were purchased by households. Of those, 17,000 were purchased by first-time buyers. In 2023 there has been a strong uptake in commencements, with 28,000 homes commenced in the year to May 2023, and 13,000 of those were in January to May. This is the highest level of commencements for this period since records began in 2014. The Government will continue to implement different measures. In social housing, for example, which the Deputy did not reference at all, we have seen the highest level of delivery since 1975 with more than 10,000 social homes delivered between new builds, acquisitions and leasing. If we take the housing assistance payment for rental accommodation this is 20,000 additional households that had their social housing needs met in 2022. There is also a strong pipeline of about 19,000 social homes either onsite or at design and tender stages. Again, in 2023 funding is in place to deliver nearly 12,000 social homes, including 9,100 new-build homes. Therefore, 26,000 social homes have been added to the social housing stock under this Government up to Q4 of last year. This is very significant progress.

There are also the first-time buyers' supports, which perhaps the Deputy does not agree with, such as the help-to-buy scheme and the first home schemes. These are having a real impact on the affordability for young people to be in a position to buy homes. There were 38,000 first-time buyers that have now been assisted with the help-to-buy scheme. The evidence is strong. On cost rental homes, there have been significant developments. It is, in essence, a new model, with 700 cost rental homes delivered in 2022. The new cost-rental subsidy will now improve the viability of apartment development in urban areas and will deliver more cost rental homes.

With regard to the eviction ban, it is our view that this would have made the situation worse in the rental market. The intervention of the various initiatives the Minister has taken, and the in situtenant purchase scheme in particular, have been very impactful in the context of the numbers who are facing eviction. The local authorities are now in the process of buying the houses for the tenants so they can stay in their homes.

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