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

I will take those questions in reverse. I am not familiar with that dispute and it would not be appropriate for me to join or not join any call without knowing all the facts. There are procedures to deal with industrial relations disputes of that nature.

I agree we need to continue to review the income thresholds for both social housing and cost rental. We have already increased them for social housing and may increase them further. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is also considering doing that with cost rental. I take the point that, when it comes to thresholds, we have to take rising incomes into account, in addition to house prices as they go up and down, and adjust accordingly. That work has been done and is under way.

On homeownership, 65% to 70% of people in Ireland own their own home. We should not forget that. Approximately 30% rent, whether it is from the Government or through the private sector. As we know from the NESC report, the percentage of people who are in the private rented sector has been level at about 20% for the past ten years or so. You would have the impression from some people that it was going up and up; far from it. It has been pretty stable for the past ten years or so now.

We are making real progress when it comes to social housing. More new social housing has been provided in the past year than any year since the 1970s. There were 7,000 or 8,000 new builds last year alone. We will do better again this year. When Sinn Féin was in government in the North, with Sinn Féin housing and finance ministers, it built approximately 1,500 social homes.

Even if we adjust for population, it is a lot less than what Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party are doing together here. There can be doubt, if we compare the North with the Republic, that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are better at building social housing than Sinn Féin and that, at least in this century, everyone is better than the Labour Party. That is what the numbers show, and people should be honest about it.

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