Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. The fact that the dream of home ownership for those who have the wherewithal to actually purchase a home has evaporated should fill Deputy O'Donovan with shame. People at the start of the noughties could aspire to own their own home in their mid-20s, now it is in their mid-30s, if they are lucky enough to find a property that has not been swallowed up by an investment fund or a local authority.

The Government has taken the actual focus and drive out of local authorities to go and build homes. I listened to the Minister give facts and figures in his speech but he and his team are touring the country with approved housing bodies, opening schemes, hauling county managers and directors of housing from the council and giving them the praise when they had nothing to do with it. They have lost the drive and the impetus to even want to build homes. It is depressing that the Government has bred that culture. Why? It has opened a chequebook for the local authorities to just snap up homes from auctioneers. If one goes to the senior executive officers, they are on their computers on a Monday morning looking at myhome.ie and trying to buy houses. That is the culture that the Government has nurtured. Officials of the State at county council level are in direct competition with young first-time buyers trying to get on the housing ladder. It is a depressing vista that has developed over the past decade but it will change. The prospect of an election in the new year will give people a clear choice on properly costed alternatives between ourselves and Fine Gael, unlike the pantomime tonight where the Social Democrats and Sinn Féin think houses will drop from the sky following a Dáil motion. I may totally disagree with the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, but I will always say this for him, at least he has an ideology. It might be a failing one but at least he has one. The nonsense coming from the left here tonight is a Wendy house solution that would have us in an even worse scenario.

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