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

We were in a different situation ten years ago. There were no homes at all being built in Ireland and there was no property at all moving. The policy solutions that might have been required ten years ago may not be the same as we require now and that may change again. Going back to that period ten years ago misunderstands the situation we faced then when no homes were being built and no property was moving, with all the consequences that arose from that.

As I mentioned in my reply to Deputy Shortall, the average price of a home changing hands last year in Ireland was €270,000. The affordable schemes will be pitching around that figure or lower. The Deputy picked the figure of €400,000 or €450,000 but that is at the top end in a particular area and it is misleading to make out that somehow all, most or even many of the affordable housing scheme homes will be priced in that range.

The purpose of the Land Development Agency is to be a major State intervention in the housing market, using public and private land and buying up parts of land where necessary to access that land and develop it for a mix of social, affordable and private for purchase housing. It is a similar model to the one we had with IDA Ireland, for example, in developing industrial parks, which it was then able to use to entice investment and bring about job creation. That is the model we are pursuing and it is a good one.

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