Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I very much support what the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, set out. It is important to realise that the reason for the housing challenge in this country is that the number of people working here has increased by over 400,000 since 2011. The housing market does not respond immediately to demand. From the time of identifying a site to putting in planning and going through the planning process to building is approximately three years. For the market to respond to demand takes anything up to three to four years. It is also difficult in Ireland where the process is far too long, particularly when there is such a huge range of opportunities for people to object and delay the process which is not helpful in the delivery of housing. It is also important that we realise that despite all the economic challenges from 2011 and 2016, from then houses did become available. In the last four years, over 73,000 new residential units were built. That is not often acknowledged. Yes, there are challenges but look at the changes in that four years, where we went from 14,000 in a year to over 21,000. Were it not for the pandemic, last year we probably would have delivered up to 25,000 residential units.

We must give every possible assistance to people to buy their own homes. I can remember as far back as the 1980s when people with very little back up support were able to buy their houses. We need to make sure that all the mechanisms are there to help first-time buyers acquire their own home and have the security and safety of knowing they do not have to face increased rents in the long term.

See this speech in context