Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for the information. I have a number of questions. What does the Minister consider to be an affordable house? What is an affordable rent? The Central Bank has a limit of 3.5 times income. What figures has the Minister been able to put together on that? Has he assessed the impact of the help-to-buy scheme on the price of houses? Has he looked at developing any new or similar initiative to support house buyers in the next year?

The Minister talked about the possibility of local authority houses being put back on the affordable scheme. It was a very bad move to get rid of that scheme in 2012 and it has left a big gap in the meantime. Local authorities are already out there with plans for social houses. Are they now going to have to start back at the very start with plans for affordable houses on greenfield sites? If they are, those houses will not realistically have gone through the planning system and will not be available for at least a year and a half. Has the Minister considered going through the local authorities in regard to the opportunities for one-off rural houses where people have a site available, so they can get planning permission and get on with building their own home?

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