Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When people buy a home, they should have control over that home. We cannot have them just as glorified tenants. It is hugely important for Sinn Féin to spell it out. It is very well to throw out a figure of €300,000 without putting flesh on it. With the schemes we have, including the local authority affordable housing scheme, people can get up to a 40% discount and still quality for the help-to-buy scheme. We changed that in the last budget to deal with people who can purchase whose income is not very high. On the first home scheme, people can get up to a 30% discount and at up 20% they still get access to the help-to-buy scheme. On the Croí Cónaithe scheme, Sinn Féin needs to be honest with people. Is the party for it or against it? From what I can see, it is looking to abolish the scheme, yet at the same time it is calling it the same scheme but it is not the same scheme. Someone who gets the Croí Cónaithe scheme can purchase a house that has been unoccupied for two years, get a €50,000 grant, or €70,000 if it is derelict, and SEAI grants as well. More than 6,120 people have availed of that to date. The question is: is Sinn Féín for it or against it? The party wants to abolish the LDA. Will it abolish the LDA? The LDA is going to build a substantial number of homes. We would like it to happen faster but the agency is building a substantial number of homes this year. It will invest €1 billion in 2024. We need to see flesh on the bones. What exactly is Sinn Féín's alternative plan? Deputy Ó Broin said he would bring it out, yet we have not seen it. He has certainly flown many kites but if he is in government, he will have to make those hard-core decisions at a point in time and show judgment. When the riots were on in Dublin city, Sinn Féin blinked and did not make the right decisions.

In the cold heat of being in government, Government has to make decisions. There were 30,000 units built last year, exceeding targets. We will exceed targets again this year. We are building social, affordable and cost-rental housing. We are providing schemes to make homes affordable. The difference with our scheme is that it allows people to get on the property ladder and makes it affordable, but they control their home, unlike Sinn Féin that proposes to bring in a scheme which effectively does not add up. I think Deputy Ó Broin owes it to the people to spell out exactly what he is proposing.

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