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

Níl mé cinnte faoi sin. Like the four budgets before it, this year's budget is unprecedented. It provides more than €6 billion in capital to help us to deliver social and affordable homes for our people.

It is the most that any Government has ever invested in housing. It is made up of more than €3.1 billion in Exchequer funding, an additional €1.25 billion to the Land Development Agency, which the party of the Members opposite would abolish, and €1.65 billion in Housing Finance Agency funding. On top of that, we have an additional €1 billion for Uisce Éireann, bringing its overall funding to €2.7 billion. As we all know, Uisce Éireann is pivotal for the future delivery of housing.

In every single budget, we have built on the previous year. This is clear to see in the number of homes we are delivering. This has increased from 20,000 homes in 2020 to what we estimate to be close to 40,000 in 2024. By any fair assessment, that is serious progress although challenges undoubtedly remain. We have managed to do this despite a global pandemic and the brutal war in Ukraine and the associated challenges. Our construction sector is growing and is expected to keep growing while those in the rest of Europe are declining. More people are buying their own homes than we have seen since the mid-2000s. Some 500 first-time buyers are buying homes every single week. This upward momentum will continue and grow as a result of this Government's budget.

We are investing more than €2.3 billion in affordability. A combination of Exchequer and other funding will support the initiatives we have put in place, such as the affordable housing fund, which allows our local authorities to build affordable homes for our people; the secure tenancy affordable rental scheme; the help-to-buy initiative, which puts €30,000 of the tax people paid back into their pocket to help with a deposit and which Sinn Féin would also abolish; and the first home scheme. We have seen more than 12,000 people register for the first home scheme and there have been 5,500 approvals to date. The help-to-buy scheme has been extended to the end of the decade, providing certainty and stability to home purchasers and home builders alike. Those who are saving right now should know that this Government has their back.

We have allocated €2 billion for the delivery of more social homes through our local authorities and approved housing body partners, which are crucial to delivery. This is the most we have ever invested in social housing and will mean more homes for those who are the most vulnerable, that is, our elderly, those with disabilities and those without a home to call their own.

We have allocated €303 million for the delivery of homeless services with a particular emphasis on ensuring that households at risk of homelessness are prevented from entering emergency accommodation and that those in emergency accommodation are supported to exit into secure tenancies as quickly as possible. This level of funding will be kept under review throughout 2025.

An increased renter's tax credit for both this year and next has been announced. This is €1,000 per renter to help defray the cost of rent, which we know is too high for many. While the renter's tax credit will assist in the immediate term, our delivery of cost-rental homes through a further €390 million under the cost-rental equity loan and secure tenancy affordable rent scheme with additional funding via the LDA will ensure a continued strong pipeline of affordable rental homes, over 4,000 of which have already been approved.

In just over four years since this Government came into being, we have introduced many different schemes and initiatives focused solely on delivering more social and affordable homes. Each of these schemes is delivering for our people and significantly so. One consequence of their success has been the reaction of the Members opposite. They get particularly exercised by our schemes, which they know are working. So exercised is Sinn Féin that it has gone as far as to propose scrapping, abolishing, ending and restricting most of our initiatives to take the legs out from under home buyers. Through its alternative housing plan, which I will call "A Home You Will Never Own", it has put on record its absolute hostility to home ownership. I am not deterred and nor is this Government. As we see real progress being made under the schemes, my focus has been on ensuring that we have the necessary funding to deliver and accelerate them, which we do. I am confident that, under budget 2025, these schemes will continue to deliver for people right across this country.

I have heard a lot of faux outrage from the Members opposite about new housing targets not being revealed in the budget. I have always said that the revised targets would be published in October and we will do that. Our revised housing targets will not be plucked from the sky but will be based on evidence and on the good work carried out by the Housing Commission, the ESRI and others. We have never been found wanting as regards financial provision in our housing budget. This remains the case today.

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