Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I cautiously welcome the Central Bank's changes to the mortgage lending rules whereby first time buyers will be permitted to take out a mortgage on the basis of having just 10% of the purchase price. This goes some way to addressing the situation where potential first time buyers were paying huge rents but were unable to get a mortgage. I am happy with the changes. Although it will increase house prices, the elephant in room is housing supply. The changes have the similar goal to the first time buyer's grant in the Finance Act, whereby the Government is purposely increasing the prices of new builds in order to incentivise builders to build houses. I hope it does not get out of control and hour prices go through the roof.

The Government must address supply by getting rid of development levies, examining the cost of certification of houses or keeping accidental landlords in the market by introducing some form of tax credit for those who bought during the boom. I welcome the Minister's roll-out of the strategic infrastructure and speeding up of planning permissions. There is a crisis in the city. The population, especially in Dublin, is growing at a faster rate than we are building houses. We need to get cracking on building more houses in the city.