Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to have an opportunity to speak in this debate. I know time is limited. To be honest, when I see members of Sinn Féin come into this House criticising the Government for not delivering affordable homes to buy, I take a very deep breath. They come as a wolves in sheep's clothing. The reality is that they oppose five important measures from the Government that will together deliver 50,000 homes at affordable prices to first-time buyers in the next five years. These measures include: the help-to-buy scheme, which will deliver at least 32,000 houses, because that is what it has delivered in the past four years; the first home affordable purchase shared equity scheme, which will deliver 8,000 homes to people at affordable prices; support for first-time buyers in our cities to access multi-unit properties, which are expensive for first-time buyers - this will deliver 5,000 homes, as I saw announced by the Minister today; and the Land Development Agency, through its Project Tosaigh and activities on State lands, will deliver a further 8,000 homes.

Sinn Féin opposes all these measures, which account for the 50,000 homes we will deliver in the years to come at affordable prices. Sinn Féin's view is extremely narrow. It insists on a narrow ideological approach that will not have any private homes on public lands. It is a narrow approach that will condemn people to not being able to gain access to homes at affordable prices. It is a housing apartheid policy that Dublin does not need. We need integrated communities, which the Government's policy seeks to pursue, and I commend the Government on creating a framework that is capable of delivering. We have seen 35,000 housing starts in the past 12 months. It is a significant step forward.

There can, however, be no room for complacency. I worry about installing fixed-price contracts because of rising costs. We must address this aspect. I also worry about the vigour with which the Land Development Agency is bringing forward sites that can drive down site values. I urge the Minister of State to continue to deliver as quickly as possible in these two areas.

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