Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome and congratulate the Minister of State, Alan Dillon, on his appointment to the Department. Alan has a specific and detailed interest in housing, and I look forward to working with him, as I am sure colleagues across the House do.

I thank Deputy Ó Broin for the question. As he knows, under Housing for All, which is the plan that we have actually published, that is fully funded and that is working and taking hold right across the country, we have targeted 54,000 affordable homes to be delivered by local authorities, approved housing bodies and the LDA and through the first home scheme, a number of measures that he and his party oppose. We will get to that later. The plan sets ambitious targets, coming from a base of zero. We had no affordable homes delivered in any way for a ten-year period. Now we see first-time buyers buying homes and drawing down mortgages at a rate of about 500 a week, the highest since 2006. In 2023, more than 4,000 affordable housing supports were delivered for people, up from 1,757 in the previous year. While that did not meet the target, it is a very significant jump in activity, a 128% increase.

I will give the Deputy one example. We have had in excess of 9,000 registrations for the first home scheme, which he rails against. Thousands of households now are able to buy their homes and have done so because of the scheme, which Sinn Féin, the Deputy's party, opposes. It might also be useful to point out during the course of these discussions that a number of Sinn Féin's own Deputies have been putting parliamentary questions to me asking me to raise price ceilings and to amend the first home scheme, a scheme they oppose. It has been a real and effective support. I have met many of those homeowners, and we will do more on affordable housing again this year. Taking the first home scheme as an example of the delivery, we have seen activity in that space double in the first quarter of this year, which is very significant. That is coupled with the help-to-buy grant, which puts €30,000 of your tax back in your pocket. Some 44,000 households have availed of that, again a measure the Deputy's party opposes.

On affordable housing, and the Deputy is right to ask questions, I have seen nothing from Sinn Féin on alternatives. Our plan is taking hold and working.

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