Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

——within 20 years, he or she will have to begin again on the housing ladder. Why is this the case? It should be remembered that some of the land on which these houses are to be built was bought for nothing and has been in the hands of local authorities for 25 years. I do not know what purpose the clawback serves. It is just an excuse.

I would like to raise many other issues but I do not have sufficient time to do so. However, I will raise the issue of loans, about which the Minister is aware. The maximum shared ownership loan available in my constituency is €165,000. The Minister of State regularly tells me that it is possible to buy a house for that sum. Where within a radius of 30 miles of Dublin can one buy a house for €165,000? What age is the Government living in? It should come into the real world. This has been a reality for the past five or six years but the Government has done nothing.

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