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

I do not have those numbers available yet but I think they will be available in the next couple of weeks. I want to acknowledge that rents are very high for far too many people in this country and that a lot of people are waiting far too long to be in a position to buy their own home. This is something that the Government is helping with. The rent credit, for example, is worth €750 per renter per year, this year. It was worth €500 per year last year. Many people are claiming that and it is helping them with the rent. We also have the new form of cost-rental housing. This is a form of public housing that allows people to rent at more affordable rates. That is really taking off now and is proving to be very popular. We will see a lot more of that being built around the country in the coming years.

When it comes to first-time buyers, we are helping them with schemes that the Deputy wants to abolish, like the help-to-buy scheme, and the first home scheme. That is making a huge difference. We saw figures come out only in the last couple of days, which show that the number of first-time buyers drawing down their first mortgage is at its highest level since 2007. That is an extraordinary change from where we were only a few years ago. In 2007, I was in my 20s. We are actually back to that now. Those are the kind of numbers that we are now seeing of people buying their first homes, which is really encouraging.

We have also seen a big uptick in the number of new homes being built. More than 33,000 new homes were built last year. That does not include derelict homes brought back into use or student accommodation. We are now seeing numbers that we have not seen in 15 years, in terms of new homes being built, and first-time buyers at a level that I have not seen since I was in my late 20s. That is really encouraging but of course I acknowledge that we are catching up on a period where that was not the case and we have a big deficit yet to close against the backdrop of a rising population.

I do need to mention two things the Deputy said because it is important in this House that we are honest and accurate on the issue of housing. This a sensitive issue and many people are hurting. They do not need misinformation from the Opposition or from any other quarter. The Deputy said that a couple must earn €127,00 per year to buy a new house in Dublin. That creates a false impression. First, the particular survey the Deputy referred to refers three-bedroom homes only and to new homes only. Most first-time buyers do not buy new homes. They buy second-hand homes for the obvious reason that they are less expensive. Many first-time buyers buy two-bed homes, not three-bed. The Deputy is picking a particular example with three different caveats and then trying to make out that is the case for everyone when he knows it is not. The survey also made the assumption that people can only borrow 3.3 times their income. The Deputy knows that is not the case anymore. It also did not take into account the Government's first home scheme, which closes the affordability gap for so many people. The Deputy created a false impression and he should not do so. Quite frankly, he should not have to do so.

The Deputy pushed the narrative that enormous numbers of young Irish people are leaving Ireland to go overseas because of the housing crisis and that this is a one-way street. We know of course that is not a one-way street. While 80,000 Irish citizens left to live abroad for many different reasons in the past three years, 90,000 came back. We know that if we look at places like Australia and cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, the ratios of house prices to income are much the same as they are in Ireland.

See this speech in context