Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was on the council when these decisions were made. We did not procrastinate. We sent the matter back to the Minister's predecessor, Eoghan Murphy, to get 100% public homes on public land, with affordable purchase, rental and social units. There is no way that the cost would have been €285,000 had it been done at the time. We were given assurances, as far as the council could do so, that the private homes would cost €260,000, which is less than the affordable housing. That is what we were told. I checked this morning and, according to The Irish Times, the prices are €370,000 for a three-bed house and €420,000 for a four-bed one. That is a further block to ordinary working families in my area. Does the Minister accept that because of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael's policy of relying on the market, these houses are nearly double what the affordable housing scheme is?

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