Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

If her parents could give her this amount she would be all right. She could then pay €12,000 per year for her mortgage and another €1,800 to €2,400 in management company fees for the apartment she wants. I have known this woman for a number of years and she is always just that little distance away. She cannot make it. She is one of the 6,000 people on Dublin City Council's waiting list and is in the draw for affordable housing three times a year. As the Taoiseach knows, there is a draw for affordable housing in the city and 300 to 350 lucky people win the right to buy a home. That says it all.

Why has the affordability gap for people trying to buy a home constantly widened? I do not know if the Taoiseach appreciates that the average mortgage in Dublin is approximately €330,000. In the past 18 months the average repayment in Dublin has increased from €1,453 to €2,167 per month. That means buying a home in Dublin will cost between €12,000 and €24,000 per year, and one has to eat after paying that. To be in the market a single person probably needs an income of over €45,000 while a couple needs over €75,000. These large increases in mortgage repayments, high child care costs and increasing travel costs and travel times put a great financial strain on many families. They erode the quality of family life and people's ability to sustain marriages and relationships.

The Taoiseach talks much about community and he values it greatly. The heart of a community is people in relationships or marriages and having children. The strain is too much with the kind of structure the Government has allowed to evolve in the housing market. It is pitted against the best and brightest young people who have good education and jobs. Although they are working hard and doing it right, they are not getting there. There was not much attention to them in today's budget. The Americans call this phenomenon "toxic debt". This occurs when families and individuals buckle under the strain of buying and furnishing a house and having some quality of personal life. This Government, due to its incredible pandering to its friends the developers, builders and landlords is poisoning the opportunity to own a home for many of our best young people.

I read that this country has the longest waiting list for private helicopters and jets outside the United States. This is a mark of incredible affluence within a generation, and more power to them.

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