Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last year, my Department spent €3.5 billion on housing alone, which is more money than has ever been spent on it in the history of the State. As the Deputy knows, there were issues with supply chains, particularly following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, that led to some projects falling out of 2022 and into 2023. That is just the reality of what happened. Even though it happened, we still managed to deliver more new social homes last year than we have done since 1975. Affordable homes are being provided for the first time in a generation, through local authorities and the Land Development Agency, and more people are being supported to buy their own home. There were 25,000 first-time buyer mortgage drawdowns last year. One in two new homes purchased in 2022 were purchased by a first-time buyer using schemes like the first home scheme and the help-to-buy grant, which is being further expanded.

We need to turn the corner on home ownership. Rates have been dropping since 1991. The recent census figures show a very small decrease in the past six years. We can reverse that.

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