Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Under social partnership agreements we have 600,000 more people working in the past decade. One third of the housing stock consists of new houses, and almost half of that went to first-time buyers. Deputy Higgins' analysis does not add up. There will always be people who experience difficulty purchasing a house. The Government has put an enormous amount of resources into social and affordable housing and has made great strides forward. Some 17,000 households will now benefit from social and affordable housing measures this year and approximately 60,000 households will benefit over the three year period to 2009. Approximately 140,000 people will benefit under social and affordable housing schemes during the life of the next national plan. That is a significant proportion of those seeking social and affordable housing.

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