Aisling Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

Housing is the number one priority for this Government. It is the issue I hear most about when I meet people across Meath West. This concern is not limited to one age group. Our twenty-somethings are struggling to gain independence. They are stuck in expensive rental markets with little hope of home ownership. Our thirty-somethings who are ready to settle down and start families are squeezed by high prices and limited supply. Our fifty-somethings are often parents watching their adult children remain at home far longer than they ever expected, not out of choice but by necessity. This is not a uniquely Irish challenge. Across the world, advanced economies are grappling with housing crises. In Canada, cities such as Toronto and Vancouver are facing skyrocketing prices, despite significant state intervention. In Germany, rent caps introduced in Berlin were struck down by courts, proving that simplistic solutions often backfire.

Housing is a deeply complex global issue rooted in supply shortages, regulatory delays and demographic shifts, yet here in Ireland real progress is being made. Fianna Fáil in government is delivering practical results. I recently met a man in Kildalkey in my constituency of Meath West who restored a vacant property into a beautiful family home, which was made possible by the vacant property refurbishment grant. That is policy working. I know countless couples in Trim, Enfield and right across Meath West who could not have secured their first home without the help-to-buy scheme and the first home scheme. These programmes are working. We are expanding them to include second-hand homes and adjusting value bands to match market realities, as needed.

We must reject the notion that home ownership is a stroke of luck. It should be an achievable standard, whether through owning or secure renting. While progress may not be as fast as any of us would like, we are moving in the right direction. Having worked in homebuilding for many years, I have seen first hand how the private sector is often unfairly scapegoated. Builders who contribute to communities are too easily vilified by the Opposition, which treats for-profit developers with suspicion and casts international investors as villains, but facts matter.

Mitchell McDermott has reported a 24% drop in apartment completions. The reason is a lack of international investment - investment driven away by the very rhetoric and policies championed by the Opposition.

Rent pressure zones, once hailed by the Opposition as the saviour of tenants, have in practice discouraged investment and stifled supply. Now, even modest proposals to tweak the RPZ model are shouted down before being seriously examined. We believe these changes can support small landlords, many of whom are simply families trying to rent out a single property. Allowing new tenancies at market value is not about profiteering; it is about keeping these landlords in the market to provide badly needed rental homes.

Yet again, the Opposition's view is reductive: landlord equals bad; investor equals worse. Sinn Féin has claimed there has been aggressive lobbying by institutional investors to roll back RPZ rules but it does not acknowledge that the consequences of driving out these investors are fewer homes, longer waiting lists and higher prices. It is not ideology that builds homes; it is capital, labour and land.

The Opposition's approach is full of contradictions. It opposes the current RPZs, rejects the revisions to same, attacks landlords and condemns international investment. It romanticises a world where local authorities can suddenly build housing at scale but refuses to say how or when or who will pay for it. It is politics over policy. We welcome scrutiny and debate but we need real, workable solutions, not slogans or vague wishlists.

The Minister, Deputy James Browne, alongside the Department of housing, is focused on cutting red tape and moving fast but smart. He has been criticised for taking his time to amend Housing for All but now we are seeing the benefit in detailed, deliverable measures: zoning more residential land before Christmas, extensions to planning permissions delayed by costs or judicial reviews, and exemptions for modular homes on family land to provide flexible housing for older parents and younger generations.

Many critics have laughed at the idea of building in back gardens but in Meath, families are embracing it. Downsizing parents are helping their children take the first step on the housing ladder and they are doing it with dignity, comfort and a sense of community. There is no silver bullet here. No single law will solve this crisis but a co-ordinated, sustained series of actions targeting social and affordable private housing will do so. Housing is not a partisan issue but it must be met with seriousness. This Government is doing the work. The Opposition must stop playing to the Gallery and start helping us build a future our people deserve.

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