Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

For the record, house prices are back to where they were in 2002. I accept that prices are increasing at a rate that is not sustainable over a prolonged period but the core response to that must be to dramatically increase supply, in particular where people are looking to buy or rent homes.

A chronic undersupply of housing, over a number of years and across all tenures, is at the heart of the problems in the housing sector. Housing output fell by more than 90% from peak construction levels of more than 93,000 homes in 2006, which was a crazy number, to just over 8,300 new units in 2013. Rebuilding Ireland targets the accelerated and increased supply of housing with the aim of reaching an annual supply of at least 25,000 well planned, high-quality, socially integrated and affordable homes per year.

While I am aware of recent reports on house prices, average prices are still well below the peak levels recorded in 2007, according to the CSO's residential property price index. The key now is to achieve the continued increase in supply of new homes at affordable prices. While I have no plans at this stage to introduce a new affordable housing scheme, although we are working on affordable rental schemes, the range of measures being put in place under Rebuilding Ireland is designed to increase supply significantly and deliver housing at more affordable price points. For example, last week's announcement of a significant funding package of €226 million for enabling infrastructure under the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, will help to support the provision of more affordable housing in the areas concerned, which have the potential to yield 23,000 new homes by 2021. A further important measure involves the greater use of State lands for mixed tenure housing delivery and considerable work is under way, in particular with the Dublin local authorities, to bring forward well-considered development proposals on a range of sites. The help-to-buy scheme is a limited intervention targeted at new builds only and is designed to encourage additional supply by the construction sector.

The scheme falls within the remit of my colleague at the Department of Finance. I do not disagree with the Deputy. There are significant pressures on many people looking to buy homes at present.

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