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

I honestly wish her a fair wind in that regard.

I also want to take the opportunity to recognise the former leaders, Deputies Shortall and Catherine Murphy. We have not always seen eye to eye. I have seen many attempts to establish new parties in my time in politics, however, and very few survive eight years. Very few have six Teachtaí Dála after eight years. It is a success that they have brought the party to this point. I do not think any party since the Progressive Democrats has managed to reach that level of success. Of course, most new parties do not survive their second leader but, hopefully, that will not be the case for the Social Democrats.

I thank the Deputy for raising the question. I am deeply concerned about the fall in homeownership in Ireland. This is a country in which nearly 70% of people own their own home. I want that to be the reality for people who are now in their 20s and 30s. That is why I am determined that this is the year in which we should turn the corner on the housing crisis.

The Deputy said she believes hers will be the first generation of young people in a long time who are worse off than their parents. I have not thrown in the towel on that. That will only be the case if we do not turn the tide on the housing crisis and homeownership, which I believe we will.

When it comes to other things that young people experience, we are doing much better. There are more employment opportunities than ever before for young people. Youth unemployment is at an all-time low. Incomes have never been higher. More young people experience further and higher education than ever was the case in the past. Of course, the personal freedoms young people have today, particularly people from LGBT backgrounds and women, are way beyond what would have been imaginable for previous generations. But the area in which we are letting young people down is on housing, and I acknowledge that. That is why we are doing so much work to turn it around, particularly when it comes to homeownership.

I am encouraged by the fact that last year, 16,000 young people and young couples bought their first home. That is the highest figure in 15 years. We need to build on that and we will do so, mainly by driving increased supply of new housing, which is crucially important, and continuing to have in place the help-to-buy scheme, which has already helped more than 30,000 people, mostly young people, to buy their first homes. The shared equity schemes like First home will now help many people too.

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