Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will ask the Minister to assess this and to see what we can do to help. I would make the point that I do take on board very seriously the report today. Mortgage lending is very robust at the moment and commencements, which are mentioned in that report, have increased very significantly. We are looking at approximately 31,000 commencements from October to October. While it is extraordinarily challenging, the help-to-buy scheme and the shared equity scheme and others will help first-time buyers. This is the highest number of commencements in a decade in any one 12 month period. There are signs of hope.

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