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

I thank the Deputy. All of us in this House acknowledge that the cost of housing in Ireland is far too high, particularly for those who want to buy their first home. Those costs are very high relative to people's incomes. That is particularly so in the cities, especially in central Dublin to where the report the Deputy referenced refers.

I note that the whole premise of the Deputy's question was to compare the housing record of my party in government with his party's record. It is fair that we do exactly that. When it comes to housing, Sinn Féin is for it in principle but always seems to be against it in practice. Its record, whether in Northern Ireland or in local authorities in this State, is very poor when it comes to providing social housing, keeping rents down and permitting builders to build houses that people need to buy.

What is the solution? More social housing is, of course, a part of the solution. More social housing benefits everyone, not only people who are on the housing list, but also people who are renting in the private sector because it helps to bring down the general cost of housing for those who do not qualify for social housing. That is why we need to build much more of it.

Deputy Doherty mentioned Deputy Eoghan Murphy. In 2019, the last year in which he was the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, we added 6,000 units to our social housing stock. North of the Border, where Sinn Féin is in government and has been for 13 of the last 20 years, much less social housing has been provided on a per capitabasis. Sinn Féin provided less social housing than Deputy Eoghan Murphy in 2019. That is Sinn Féin's record and that is a verifiable fact.

When it comes to private housing, we need to build more of that because people need homes to buy and people in Ireland want to own their own homes. That is true of 65% or 70% of people and we want to make that a reality for as many people as we can. However, Sinn Féin representatives on local authorities across Ireland vote against zoning land for housing, housing developments, social housing and mixed housing of all sorts. That is particularly verifiable in Dublin City Council and other areas.

We have the help-to-buy scheme which Sinn Féin is against. That scheme is there to help people with their deposits, allowing them to reclaim some of the income tax they have paid in previous years. Sinn Féin has consistently opposed that but it has helped thousands of people to get their deposits together and buy their first home.

We also have rent pressure zones which were brought in to moderate and control rents. While they have not brought rents down, they have been successful in slowing rent inflation, making sure that, in many parts of the country, the maximum rent increase is 4% and, in many cases, is much lower than that. Contrast that with Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland, where it voted to increase rents. These are the facts. Sinn Féin built fewer social houses in 2019 than Deputy Eoghan Murphy did as the Fine Gael Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government. Sinn Féin votes to increase rents in Northern Ireland. It opposes the building of new homes on local authorities across Ireland. Sinn Féin would make a bad situation much worse.

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