Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

The key to this is housing supply. Our initiatives since the beginning of the year have been designed to get more houses built more quickly. The rate of increase is in decline, but that is not enough. We need far more supply to deal with the rental issue. Some positive news is that the percentage of first-time buyers has been steadily increasing, as I said, from about 23% of all household buyers in 2015 to 35% in August of this year. We want to continue that momentum. If we look at the situation internationally, right across Europe and the globe, there are housing crises more generally. That is the case in any of the major cities across Europe. We would probably rank in the top three European countries in terms of investment in construction. That is the key. We have to build more houses faster.

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