Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the clarity. I am glad the Minister is at last moving to develop regulations to establish the scheme. However, I am still unclear about the site selection process and the income thresholds. The Minister stated the income thresholds will be similar to those that apply under the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme. Couples in Dublin, Galway and Cork earning €70,000 or €80,000 per annum cannot purchase houses now. They are the people who are paying €1,600, €1,800 and 2,000 per month in rent and thus unable to save for a deposit. There must be flexibility in the thresholds. There are some people in this House who believe that a couple earning €80,000 or €90,000 per annum are loaded but they are not. These are the couples who are paying rent, childcare costs and so on. We should all work together to establish a scheme that works and to do so quickly.

On the Minister's point that we had to do social housing first and he is now moving to affordable housing, we have not done social housing yet. In terms of expectation, will this scheme be up and running before the summer and is the Minister open to looking at regional affordability? As wage levels differ across the country we will need different thresholds in terms of affordability. The greater Dublin area may have a different regional affordability than the midlands or Ulster. We need to have flexibility to ensure no cohort of people is locked out of home ownership which, at 69%, is now the lowest it has been in generations. I do not want a generation of people condemned to a rip-off rental market.

See this speech in context