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

It is wrong. It is classic of the left-wing populism which Sinn Féin stands for. It is about creating ideas of masses against the elites, simple solutions to complex problems, and demonising opponents. It is not just about disagreeing with people but saying that the people that Sinn Féin disagrees with are lesser people and do not care as much. That is pure left-wing populism. That kind of populism has destroyed politics in many other democracies. Sinn Féin represents that in this country. I hope that will become more obvious to people over the years. It should be possible to disagree with people without questioning their motives or making them out to be uncaring or whatever Sinn Féin's current line is. It is beneath the Deputy. It is unnecessary and I hope he will reconsider that approach. It is the left-wing populist approach. It is the mirror image of what Trump and Brexit have done, and what extremists are doing on the left and right all over Europe.

The housing crisis affects different people in different ways. Some people are struggling to pay rent, other people are struggling to pay mortgages, and there are people in their 30s and 40s still living at home with their parents because they are struggling to raise a deposit to buy a house as that is what they want to do. In the budget, we introduced income tax and welfare packages that will benefit people across society. It will not just benefit renters but all workers and indeed people who are on welfare. We stand over the approach that we took in this budget.

We have done two significant things for private renters in the budget. We are retaining the help to buy scheme, which helps people to raise a deposit to buy a house. We have record levels of investment in social housing, cost rental and affordable housing. That is what we did in the budget for private renters. Sinn Féin's approach was different. It offered a rent tax credit of about €1,000 a month, but with one hand it would give renters €1,000 while with the other hand it would take away €20,000 to €30,000 by abolishing the help to buy scheme. Renters who want to become homeowners are much better off under this Government than they would be under Sinn Féin. There is no doubt that renters who want to buy would be better off under this Government than they would be under Sinn Féin. I believe that Sinn Féin is proposing that because it fundamentally does not believe in increasing home ownership. It is not against home ownership entirely, but it does not want to see the percentage of people who own their home increasing. Its model is different. It is the Vienna model. It is the central eastern European model-----

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