Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. One can just about build a home for €200,000. We need to be reasonable in terms of what we are trying to deliver and in terms of people's expectations. If the Deputy looks at the Ó Cualann model, which we support and which the local authority delivered, and which we want to do to scale using the serviced sites fund, each of those houses got between €70,000 and €80,000 of a discount for each site to allow people to be able to buy those houses for less than €200,000. We need to be honest with the public when we talk to them about what we are trying to achieve in terms of delivering more affordable homes for them.

When we talk about €320,000, we are talking about a cap. Two people earning the average wage of €40,000 can get a mortgage to buy a house at €320,000. The problem is that not enough homes are being built. We have a shortage of housing and we are playing catch-up, although we are catching up very quickly. As we build more homes in particular areas we see that it has a mitigating impact on the price of houses being sold there. If we look outside of Dublin, the greater Dublin area, Cork and Galway, 88% of homes sold in the last 12 months were sold for less than €250,000. Of course, there is a problem in Dublin and the greater Dublin area, but approximately one third of homes sold there in the last 12 months were sold for less than €250,000.

Clearly, there is a problem in terms of affordability. That is why we are bringing forward schemes like the subsidised housing scheme using the serviced sites fund and LIHAF. That is why the Land Development Agency will bring forward land that would not have been available for housing in order to deliver that land in a way that is social, subsidised and for the general public.

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