Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government and I have shown the commitment we have to make a difference to the huge challenges many are facing by increasing the funding in our capital building programmes for local authorities all over the country to build more social and affordable houses and by our efforts to support the private sector to deliver more homes. I refer to the role and impact of the help to buy scheme, which the Opposition is against. I refer to the shared equity scheme, which the Opposition is against. I refer to the Land Development Agency, which is looking to deliver more land banks and deliver more homes, that the Opposition is against. Many different housing schemes and projects have been brought forward by local authorities the length and breadth of the country, which the Opposition voted against and opposed locally, while Members come into the Dáil and look for more homes to be built. That is what we have sought to do.

Of course, we acknowledge more progress needs to be made and that we have to deliver more homes. However, what I will not do is indicate I am prepared to bring in measures, as the Opposition is suggesting, that have the capacity to make a tough situation even harder and tougher for so many. I repeat what I said earlier in the debate. Bringing in a measure that seeks to freeze rents at their current level for a three-year period, while I can understand its appeal in the face of the huge difficultly and significant angst and worry so many people face, is a recipe for less rental accommodation being made available and higher rents. The evidence is clear from other cities and countries that have brought in such measures. As difficult as our situation is, the answer is more supply being built in the ways the Government is seeking to deliver, and we know we must deliver that.

In conclusion, I refer to the very human situation Deputy Boyd Barrett referred to earlier. He brought up this on Committee Stage and I gave him the best answer I could then, which I will make available to the Dáil. I have those conversations in my constituency and face families who are affected in the way the Deputy described. We give all the support we can to provide, in my case, Dublin City Council, and, in the Deputy's case, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Council, supports to families who are in those circumstances. Their plight is the reason the Government wants to make a difference to a situation we accept is difficult for so many.

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