Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Therein lies part of the problem. The Minister is correct that house prices in Monaghan are lower than in other parts of the State. My fear is that the local authority and the Department will consider that Monaghan is not a priority for affordable housing. The difficulty is that we see the pressures that are already building, even in a county like Monaghan. House prices in County Monaghan, according to the most recent daft.iereport, have increased by 17.5% and the average house price is €204,000, which is way beyond the means of many people in terms of mortgage supports. Crucially, rents have increased by 13.8% over the past year and are now at just under €900. In the context of the position across the State, those might appear to be local issues that are of low priority. The problem is, however, that we know that when the prices across the State reflected this and when action was not taken, we ended up with the overall prices we have now. The solution is to start planning and to build and supply affordable houses now rather than when house prices are out of control.

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