Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

House prices, as the Tánaiste knows, are out of control and homeownership continues to be in decline. He and his partners have been in government for ten years and during that period, house prices have increased by 42%. In Dublin city the increase is a shocking 88%. Thanks to Fine Gael housing policy it is now more difficult to buy a home than ever before. Fine Gael claims to the be the party of homeownership and to represent people who get up early in the morning to go to work. However, under its watch fewer working people than ever can afford to put a roof over their heads. Couples are paying sky-high rents while struggling to save for a deposit. Single people, even those on good incomes, are completely locked out of the market. Those who are separated or divorced and have lost the family home are facing the steep climb of a 20% deposit. Families who lost their home after the crash are facing a future of insecure and expensive renting. Despite the Fine Gael's promise of making homeownership a reality it has done the very opposite. Pro-developer help-to-buy tax breaks and shared equity loans have pushed up house prices. Not a single affordable home was delivered through any central Government scheme while the Tánaiste was Taoiseach. Just a handful of affordable homes to by will be delivered this year. Budget 2022 included an embarrassingly low level of investment in affordable homes to buy next year.

As if all this was not bad enough, we now learn that house prices in Dublin are set to increase by as much as 25% in the coming years. Dublin City Council, as part of its development plan review, commissioned KPMG to assess both the future need and cost of housing in the city. The report revealed by Killian Woods in the Business Postlast Sunday was truly frightening. Average house prices are set to rise every year from now until 2028 to a staggering €575,000. You would need an income of €148,000 to buy a home at that price. Even if you availed of the full shared equity loan payment of €90,000 you would still need a household income of €122,000 to afford that home. At these prices, the vast majority of people will not be able to buy a home in the capital. Meanwhile, the same report says rents in Dublin will continue to soar. By 2028 the median rent could be as has as €2,412 per month, according to the report. For this to be affordable, you would need a take-home pay of over €7,000 per month. This report is based on the most up-to-date data from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, and the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI. It was published after the Tánaiste and his colleagues announced their new housing plan and proves beyond any doubt their housing policy is a failure.

My questions are very simple. Do the Tánaiste and the Government accept the findings of this significant KPMG report and what are they going to do, that they are not already proposing, to bring house prices down so working people can afford to put a roof over their heads in the capital in the years to come?

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