Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising what is the most significant social issue of our generation. This Government, notwithstanding Covid-19, has made very significant progress and initiated a range of actions and initiatives on social and affordable homes of different types and supports for first-time buyers. A total of 125,000 new homes have been built since 2020, notwithstanding the lockdowns. That is way in excess of anything that had happened in the previous years. More homes have been completed in the past four and a half years than in the previous nine years combined, and we will exceed our Housing for All completion targets again this year. The pipeline is extremely strong, with work having begun on nearly 60,000 new homes in the past 12 months. That is almost double the figure for the previous 12-month period. Close to 33,000 homes were completed in 2023, the highest number in 15 years. Under the budget for 2025, for whichever new Government comes in, €6 billion has been provided in capital spending to help deliver social, affordable and cost-rental houses. Planning permissions for over 41,000 homes were granted in 2023, an increase of 21%.

It is clear that very significant momentum has been built up in respect of housing, and particularly on social housing, for example. Over 40,000 social homes had been added to the social housing stock up to quarter 2 of 2024, which is a significant achievement that dwarfs anything that was done prior to this period in government. We have seen the highest level of new-build social homes since 1975, with 8,110 new builds in 2023 out of a total of 12,000 built through various mechanisms, and a strong pipeline of social houses is coming.

In terms of affordability, we have expanded the help-to-buy scheme to support home ownership and 51,500 first-time buyers have been helped by the help-to-buy scheme. We have also introduced the first home bridge the gap scheme, which has significantly enabled a lot of young people to afford a house. We have introduced the cost-rental concept to bring in affordable rents and about 2,200 have been delivered by AHBs, local authorities and the LDA and through the cost-rental tenant in situ scheme. Nearly 6,000 affordable homes have been delivered as a result of all these initiatives. On the first home bridge the gap scheme, about 5,500 buyers have been approved. We have brought 10,000 vacant properties back into use. We have introduced a vacant property refurbishment grant of up to €70,000 where a property is derelict and close to 7,000 approvals have issued already.

By any objective assessment, huge progress has been made, but we need to do an awful lot more. We need to maintain this momentum and build more houses in a faster way over the next five years.

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