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

I will tell the Deputy what is happening in the real world. Last year, about 30,000 new homes were built in Ireland. In those homes are real people, with 30,000 families living in a home that did not exist last year. It is the kind of house-building we have not seen in this country in a very long time and we are going to build on that. Last year, more new social housing was provided than in any year in decades - something Sinn Féin was not able to achieve in Northern Ireland when it was given the chance and held the housing ministry. Thousands of families are in social housing tonight in houses that did not exist a year ago.

There will be more of them this year and I can guarantee the Deputy that. The thing that gives me the most hope, and the greatest sense that we are starting to make progress here, is the very big increase in the number of first-time buyers. There are approximately 400 people per week now buying their first home. That does not include own builds and it counts couples as just one. If anything, that is an underestimate. We are seeing hundreds of first-time buyers now every week. This is very clear and indisputable at this stage. It is only a question as whether this is the highest since 2010 or the highest since 2007. Sinn Féin wants to reverse that. The motion it has tabled in the Dáil this week would end the help-to-buy and first-home schemes. It has gaslighted young people and first-time buyers into thinking that it is on their side; it is not. It will take away the schemes that are working. It wants to take away help to buy, first home-----

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