Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity. I am aware I only have a little time. Home ownership is one of the biggest issues in Kerry for young people who want to buy or build their own home. The building option is nearly impossible because of planning permission. Home ownership is unattainable because of the cost of houses. It is hard for a young fella or a young couple - a boy and a girl - to get the funds together to buy a house or compete with people coming from abroad who have vast sums of money or with people we do not even know. It is absolutely shocking for young people now to contemplate what they have to go through to own a house.

Local authorities, instructed by the Department of Housing, do not even allow people to buy their council house anymore. One cannot buy any local authority house that was built after 2015. That was a laudable thing that people aspired to doing when they got on their feet, whether it was a rural cottage in the country or one they built on their own land. They were allowed to buy it when they got the funds together or when they were standing on their feet and able to do it. That has been stopped now. People still want to own their own home but they are being disallowed from doing that. We need to have a further debate to see how this can be managed. It cannot just be stamp duty alone. Other avenues are open to the Government to ensure that people who want to own a home can purchase it.

It is grand to see 250 or 270 houses being built in Killarney at the present time, but no young fella can buy one of those houses. They are bought up by voluntary housing bodies and that is grand because someone will benefit from that. There are other people who just want to do the basic thing to own a home, develop it and keep it for life. That is all they want. We are not seeing after those people at all, even in this budget.

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