Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The idea that the very small number of affordable purchase and affordable cost-rental homes that have been delivered over three years is delivery at scale is laughable. The numbers speak for themselves. We had a discussion about this last night. It is very interesting that in his first response, the Minister of State talked about several thousand homes being delivered through the first home scheme. He now accepts that they have not been delivered and people are not living in those homes. They are simply loan approvals. It would be much more honest if he were to report the figure for the number of homes actually purchased, which was only 699 at the end of quarter 3 out of the 2,500 approvals he mentioned. It is really important that we have accurate data.

What is also very concerning is the price of these homes. We are now seeing affordable cost rentals at unaffordable rates of €1,550 a month. In my constituency, affordable purchase homes are now costing between €407,000 and €435,000. That is just insane. Not only is the Minister of State not delivering the homes he promised and misrepresenting the record by referring to approvals rather than purchases, but the homes are not affordable in the first place. I would like to hear his response to that.

See this speech in context