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

The statement the Deputy made earlier was not correct because he did not take account of the first home scheme. The whole point of the scheme established by the Government is to close the affordability gap, where there is a gap between what a new house costs to buy and what a person can get in a mortgage. If we take into account the first home scheme, which thousands of people are now using and which Sinn Féin wants to abolish, it is possible for couple on an income below €127,000 to buy those homes mentioned by the Deputy. It is even there in the survey if he chooses to read it. There is a little asterisk that notes it does not take account of the first home scheme. People all over the country are now using the scheme to buy new homes and it is wrong that Sinn Féin and the left want to abolish it and take that opportunity away from first-time buyers.

On our housing targets, more than 30,000 new homes were built last year, the highest number in 15 years. Some 500 first-time buyers are drawing down mortgages per week, the most we have seen since I was in my late 20s. That is what we are seeing in the market. There is more social housing than in any year since the 1970s. We do not have exact figures for cost-rental and affordable houses yet but we will and I am sure there will be more of them than in the previous year.

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