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

The context in which we are dealing with the housing crisis is one of a rapidly-rising population and changing demographics. Households are smaller and, as a result, we require more houses and apartments. We are running up an escalator that is coming down at us quite fast, but we are making progress. More than 30,000 new homes were built last year, the highest number since 2008. We will build even more this year. There are some 500 first-time buyers every week drawing down their first mortgages. We have not seen that since the Celtic tiger period. There is more social housing being built than at any point in the 1970s. That housing is very much needed. The LDA is starting to produce results, building cost-rental and affordable homes for purchase all over this city and in other parts of the country. We want to restrict short-term letting significantly, not in tourist areas but in our cities, where there is enormous demand for housing. That is currently being held up by the European Commission but it is something we are pursuing.

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