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

Parents and grandparents want to see their children buying a decent home, like they did at a similar age. The Government is committed to tackling this as our number one priority. After a decade of undersupply, as the Taoiseach said, the numbers of new builds, commencements and planning permissions are up. More and more people are drawing down mortgages and buying new homes. The first affordable purchase homes in a generation will be delivered this year. The first cost rental homes have been built and the largest social housing building programme in our history is under way. There will be more new-build social homes this year than ever before, regardless of the continued objections to them by Deputy McDonald's party.

We have delivered policies like the first home scheme, to which there have already been hundreds of applicants. That was opposed by Sinn Féin. A new vacancy grant is being launched this week. The expanded help to buy scheme was, again, opposed by Sinn Féin. All of these measures put home ownership back at the centre of housing solutions and Sinn Féin opposed them all. They are all part of our Housing for All plan, under which 300,000 new homes will be delivered by 2030. We are investing €4 billion a year, which is €1.2 billion more than Sinn Féin put forward in its 16-page housing plan, eight pages of which were taken up by pictures of Deputy Ó Broin and others.

See this speech in context