Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

There is nothing wrong with that. Generally first-time buyers buy new houses rather than second-hand houses. The Deputy mentioned the census figures. There are four local authorities in County Dublin. Dublin city is almost fully built up. Naturally the population of the city will not increase in the same way as Kildare, Meath or north County Dublin. It goes back to the point Deputy O'Dowd made earlier. Some of the middle-class, middle-range suburbs of Dublin now have many three and four-bedroom homes containing only two adults. In a large swathe of Dublin, in areas such as Clontarf, Glasnevin, Rathmines and Clonskeagh, the populations are falling. There is a logic to Deputy O'Dowd's remark that it would be sensible to recycle some of those homes but the opportunity for building new homes in Dublin does not exist other than in the docklands, Pelletstown and other such places. While affordability has worsened slightly, the fact that people are now taking out 35 year mortgages means the percentage of net take home pay being spent on mortgage repayments is no greater than it was when the Deputies opposite or I bought our houses.

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