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

My responsibility is to provide an affordable housing sector, not for the benefit of any one public sector worker or any one worker in the economy, but to everyone in the country. We must have a functional housing sector that provides not just social housing or general housing but affordable housing as well. I am not responsible for the pay and conditions for anyone working in the public sector.

If we are not building more homes then conversations around people in emergency accommodation or affordability, whether in terms of rent or purchase, become moot because there would not be enough supply. Supply is now increasing. The focus of Rebuilding Ireland in its initial years was to rebuild those parts of the housing sector that were broken so that more homes could be built. As those homes were built more social housing homes were built at the same time. Last year, one in four of all homes built was for social housing.

We have a very ambitious pipeline for building affordable housing currently, whether affordable to buy, affordable to rent or cost rental. Recently, notwithstanding the huge affordability challenge we have in this country, house prices have begun to moderate due to the increase in supply. Last year rents began to fall in consecutive quarters. The big increase in supply has made a positive impact, but notwithstanding that we have to drive affordability at the heart of public policy. That is why we have the help to buy scheme, which has helped over 10,000 people buy a home. The Rebuilding Ireland home loan has helped over 700 families and individuals get a mortgage for their first homes. I will refer to a number of other schemes in more detail in my next contribution.

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