Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There were 593 of these in the city, which is a 150% increase on the previous year. We are seeing new housing being delivered. It took a long time for us to get to the position where we could get the construction sector and social housing going again. That is now happening. Due to the financial crisis and the crash, we had a seven-year period during which almost no new homes were built. As a result, we have a big deficit of housing in this country, which is at the root of the problems we face. Finally, we are getting to the position where we are seeing real and sustained increases in supply. This year, 10,000 social homes are being provided, which is getting people off housing lists and into permanent tenancies with a big increase in the supply of private housing as well. There are more places for people to buy and rent. As a result, we can now see house prices are levelling off and falling in Dublin, as we see from the daft.ie report today. In the words of the author, which I repeat and they are not my words, "It looks as though Ireland's longest-ever run of increasing rental prices may soon come to an end." Would that not be a good thing?

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