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

There is one point on which I agree with the Deputy, which is that the housing crisis affects a great number of people in society in different ways, whether it is people experiencing homelessness, people paying unaffordable rents, people who want to buy their first home but cannot or people who own their own home but who still have adult children living with them, which they find very distressing on behalf of their children. I get that and so does the Government.

The Deputy touched on the need for affordable housing. She should look at what the Government is doing. Cost rental is a reality for the first time. The Deputy was critical of my party and that is fair enough, but that was a policy initiated by Deputy Coveney and Eoghan Murphy. It took a few years for it to happen because it takes a few years to build houses and apartments. People are now being offered cost rental accommodation for the first time. We need a lot more of it. The current Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is really leading the charge on shared equity schemes so that more people can buy their first home. There are also local authority loans for people who cannot get a mortgage from a bank. Thousands are now getting mortgages backed by the Government through local authorities to allow them to afford a home.

The Deputy has not been particularly supportive of those policies. I think that is a shame.

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