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

What I acknowledged yesterday is that the very real housing crisis we face in this country is a disaster for many people. It may not be for the 60% or 70% of us who are lucky enough to own our own homes, whether through a mortgage or outright, but it is certainly a disaster for people who cannot afford to buy a home and really want to and for people who are paying very significant proportions of their income in rent. I do not deny that is devastating for them and that there is a housing crisis, nor have I. I did not need to be told by anyone about the problems we face as a country. However, it is also the case, and it is just a fact, that the origins of this housing crisis lie in events that happened a very long time ago, when we had a property bubble that was followed by a banking collapse and a construction collapse. As a result of that, instead of building 30,000 or 35,000 new homes every year for a decade, which would have been the norm, virtually no houses were built for a very long time. We have a deficit of houses in the State. There are probably 250,000 fewer houses than we need. That is the origin of this housing crisis. The responsibility of those parties who are willing to be in government, and the Deputy's party has chosen not to enter government on several occasions, which is something we can come back to, is not to describe problems but to try to come up solutions and put them into action. That is hard. It is difficult work but it is work we are willing to do, unlike the Deputy's party.

The Deputy asked what we are doing about it. The main thing we are doing is increasing supply. On its own, increasing supply will not solve the housing crisis but we will not solve it without increasing supply. Where are we at the moment? Approximately 25,000 new homes will be built this year, more than in any year for a very long time. Approximately 35,000 homes are now under construction, more than have been for a very long time. Approximately 45,000 have got planning permission in the past year so you can see a real pipeline of new housing coming on stream. The Deputy probably saw the figures that came out yesterday. In April of this year alone, more than 1,000 first-time buyers bought their first home. As far as I can remember, it has been a long time since 1,000 first-time buyers bought a new home in just one month. That is not enough. I want to see it increase to 2,000 and 3,000 a month. That is where we intend to be. Among the reasons that is happening is our help-to-buy scheme. More than 30,000 individuals and couples have received help in buying their first home through that scheme in recent years. That is something the Deputy's party wants to take away from them.

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