Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I dtús báire, ba mhaith liom mo fhíor-chomhbhrón a ghabháil leis na daoine sna Stáit Aontaithe, go mór mór na daoine áitiúla in Valdes Texas tar éis dúnmharú uafásach na leanaí ann. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha dílse. On behalf of the Government I send our deepest sympathies to those affected by the terrible murder of innocent children in Texas. Our thoughts are with their families and their communities.

Maidir leis ann gceist shonrach tithíochta a thagair an Teachta dó, tá an plean is láidre agus is tábhachtaí ná riamh de €4 billiún ann d'infheistíocht ar thithíocht sóisialta agus ar thithíocht inacmhainne freisin. Cabhróidh an plean seo agus oibreoidh sé. Tá a fhios ag an Teachta faoi sin. Níl aon phlean ar chor ar bith ag Sinn Féin. Is é an plean atá ag Sinn Féin ná a bheith in aghaidh gach rud. The Government has a housing plan that is working. It has €4 billion of investment and €1.2 billion per annum more than Sinn Féin proposed in its 16-page policy document, eight pages of which are pictures of cups of coffee and its spokesperson on housing. We are very serious about increasing supply and supply is increasing. There are affordability issues no question. This is why we passed the Affordable Housing Act, the most comprehensive legislation on affordability that has ever come before the House. Sinn Féin supported it and did not come up with alternatives to it. There are a number of measures within it, particularly on the delivery of affordable housing through local authorities, which we are doing. This year we will see homes sold at €166,000 and upwards throughout the country. For people stuck in the rental and affordability trap we will open the first home shared equity scheme.

It will help thousands of young, and not so young, people bridge the gap between the finance they have and the finance they need by the State taking an equity stake, not by getting a second mortgage as Sinn Féin and its housing spokesperson claimed last year. Sinn Féin supported the Act and I welcome that. It is about supply and activating dormant planning permissions that exist. The Croí Cónaithe cities fund is a targeted measure to ensure people can own apartments in the five major cities in the country on an open book basis where the support goes to the purchaser, not the developer. Sinn Féin knows this but it does not suit its narrative, which is to oppose measures on every issue and say the measures are not working. We have had the highest number of commencements in the year to March 2022 than there has been since 2007. We also have had the highest number of first-time buyer mortgages in the 12 months to March 2022 than there has been since 2007.

We will support people in owning their own homes because we believe in homeownership. While doing that, we are also delivering more social homes this year than have ever been delivered before, in any year since the foundation of the State. We are doing that even though the Deputy and his colleagues across the Twenty-six Counties continue repeatedly to object and cause delays.

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