Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach. I was hoping he would mention Hansfield in Fingal. I watched the Twitter clip yesterday of the Taoiseach in a hard hat. Initially I thought it was a "Callan's Kicks" satire because the Taoiseach was standing beside houses, the sale prices of which are €315,000 to €395,000. One would need a combined household income of between €81,000 and €101,000 and a deposit of €31,000 to €39,000 to purchase one. The Taoiseach asked me where I got my definition of affordable housing. It is from legislation and from existing affordable housing schemes introduced in this State. The definition is above the threshold for social housing and equates to a household average of approximately €75,000. It is absolutely remarkable that our Taoiseach does not even know the legislative definition of affordable housing, let alone have a definition for his own Government, and cannot tell us how many affordable housing units will be delivered for the €1.1 billion of subsidies he is giving to private developers.

All of those measures the Taoiseach announced to put pennies in the pockets of working families will do nothing if he does not address the spiralling cost of purchasing or renting affordable homes. Perhaps he can answer as to why he has no targets. When will he introduce a definition of "affordable housing" to give working families a real break?

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