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

I invite Deputies to think about the fact that more than 6,000 social housing homes and more than 20,000 private homes are being built this year. One in three homes being built this year will be used for social housing. It is nonsense for people to say that we are reliant on the market for our solutions and that our targets are not ambitious. Next year, we will build more social housing homes than were built in any of the boom years. We cannot escape such facts. Rebuilding Ireland is working. As supply increases, we are locking in affordability. Since 2016, 50,000 new homes have been bought by first-time buyers. That number comes from the CSO and is not my own. The help-to-buy scheme has supported 15,000 households over the same period. The Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme has helped more than 1,000 households. Deputies have called for a shared equity affordability scheme and such a scheme now exists. It will help a couple on €55,000 - a teacher and a nurse, for example - to buy a new home in Dublin. It will help a single person on €36,000 to buy a new home in Cork. Our studies have shown that the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme is helping chefs, carpenters and lorry drivers to buy homes. We are helping people to buy homes. We are not relying on the market for these purposes. We are putting taxpayers' money in to drive delivery. These facts come from the CSO. Our work is not finished, but we are making progress. The number of people in emergency accommodation - 10,514 - is also important. It was just under 8,000 when I came into office. I am answerable for that increase. I am also answerable for the more than 12,000 people who have left homelessness since I came into office because of the significant efforts that have been made in this area. The solution of the Social Democrats is to propose a motion of no confidence and to say that Rebuilding Ireland is failing. Not once have the Deputies in question come into the joint committee to question me on Rebuilding Ireland.

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