Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister well in his new portfolio. I thank my colleague, Deputy Ó Broin, for bringing forward this important motion on behalf of the many thousands of our citizens for whom owning their own home is simply a pipe dream. It is imperative that we tackle this aspect of our housing crisis head on and with immediate action.

This issue is a particularly dominant one in my own constituency. House prices across County Wexford have risen consistently in the past couple of years. According to the daft.iereport for the first quarter of 2020, the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the county has increased by 6.1% since last year. For a two-bedroom house, the increase was 3.3% and, for a three-bedroom home, the monthly rent increased by 2.4%. I have also examined the CSO data, which show that the median house price increased in both Gorey and Wexford in the period from April 2019 to April 2020.

We can conclude from these data that we are seeing a steady increase in house prices in Wexford. It is enough to cause alarm that we are following the trend in Dublin and other areas where workers are completely priced out of the market. We are also seeing Wexford become a destination for families priced out of the capital and its hinterland. As this happens more and more and as demand rises, market prices will continue to increase and we will find ourselves in a similar situation to what we see across the country, where accommodation is unattainable, unaffordable and unavailable for first-time buyers, average industrial wage earners and, especially, hard-working families. Nationally, we need to get a grip on the imperative to provide good-quality, affordable housing. The lack of such housing is already developing into a major societal problem, including in County Wexford. It is time to act and we can begin by supporting this motion.

See this speech in context