Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have been very consistent in this House in saying repeatedly that housing is the single most urgent and important social issue facing our society at this time. Since the Government has come into office, we have focused razor-like on the housing issue. The evidence supports this with the new schemes that have been brought in, construction and so on, but I will deal with that in a moment. The Deputy should be in no doubt the Government sees housing as the key priority. It is a pillar of the programme for Government and much has been done over the past two and a half years, notwithstanding the impact of the lockdowns during Covid-19, of which there were two.

We came out of those lockdowns to the war in Ukraine and an inflationary cycle that greatly increased building material costs but we got to grips with that through the work of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy McGrath, on public tendering and reform to give confidence back to the sector to continue to invest in housing. We are increasing the supply of housing and will continue to do so. The plan is working. We all accept the challenges facing people but the answer is to build more houses and get supply up, along with a range of other policies. I have said repeatedly that I have seen no alternative to Housing for All from the Deputy's party or anybody else. I have not seen it in substance, detail or additional recommendations that would go over and above what the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has introduced. Those are the realities.

The latest home completion data from the CSO show the country is well on track in exceeding the Housing for All plan for 2022. We will go over 24,600 towards the end of this year. Some 28,000 homes were built in the 12 months to September 2022. Some 21,000 houses were completed in the first nine months of this year and we hope to go over the target that we set ourselves. The plan is working but we need to build more houses, more quickly.

There were more than 16,000 first-time buyers in the past 12 months. That is the highest since 2007 and represents 33% of all house purchases. House completions, commencements, permissions, home purchases, first-time buyers and mortgage draw-downs are all up to record levels. We have had the highest housing delivery since 2008; the highest commencements on record; the highest planning permissions, the highest number of first-time buyers since 2007; and the highest number of homebuyers since 2008.

We have also pushed strongly ahead with social housing. Some 18,390 new social homes have been added to the social housing stock under the Government to the end of quarter 2 of 2022, including 11,301 new builds. We have brought 5,000 social homes back into use under the voids programme. We are also concluding the review of a fundamental overhaul of our planning code, because delivery of housing is key, as is the delivery mechanism in respect of objections to housing projects and the slowness of delivery in many councils over many years. O'Devaney Gardens, Oscar Traynor Road - you name it - have taken too long.

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