Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to outline the Government's approach to housing and to point out progress and achievements in this important area. The Government's strong record on housing is proven and stands in contrast to some of the superficial and unfounded comments made this evening and enshrined in the motion.

House price increases reflect, primarily, intensified demand for housing resulting from unprecedented growth in Ireland's population and economy. Both of these factors have had a major impact in the last year. A report referred to 90,000 extra jobs in the economy and 50,000 extra people in the country. We await the new census figures, but one of the most striking statistics in the last census showed the number of people in the 25-34 year old age bracket had increased by 18%. This increase is extraordinary as this cohort represents the bulk of people buying houses and setting up homes.

It is not true that first-time buyers have been priced out of the market. The number of first-time buyers in recent years is higher than ever before. It is estimated that approximately 45% of all new house purchase loans taken out last year were attributable to first-time buyers. They may be under pressure, depending on their income bracket, but they are buying, they are getting by and they are a significant part of the market.

The Government has taken action to respond to increased housing demand, particularly through measures to promote an adequate supply of housing. There is clear evidence that this policy is having an effect. Last year was the 11th year of record house completions with nearly 81,000 finished. Ten years ago that figure was under 31,000 and in the early 1990s it stood at just 21,000 to 22,000. It has gone up by 400% since then. Senator Norris said these figures hide the fact that building on such a scale is not going on in Dublin. It is, last year 18,000 of the overall figure of 81,000 were in Dublin and approximately 28,000 were in the greater Dublin area. I accept that over ten to 12 years Dublin was slower to get running but the figures in more recent years have been significant and that is where the affordability problem lies. We are providing new homes at a faster rate than any other country in Europe. Such statistics are maintained in an international table. We are currently at an output figure of 20 new houses per year per 1,000 of population, while the UK figure is about five, and Sweden is about one. We are way ahead of other countries regarding output, based on demographics and the increased number of young people in the country.

Senator Bannon said there are more people than ever before living with their families, more 30 year old sons and daughters. There may be, but 15 or 20 years ago they were not living with their families because they were living in Australia, America and elsewhere throughout the world. Which way does one want it? Certainly such people who might be ready to leave the nest are still living with their parents — we might all have that problem to some extent — but in many regards it is a good problem to have because 15 or 20 years ago such people were living abroad.

Our achievement has not happened by accident. One of the central roles of Government is to facilitate the provision of housing, and our record speaks for itself. Since 1997 we have improved the planning regime to ensure it operates in full support of housing policies, and have invested in serviced land to the extent that we now have some six years supply of serviced residential land nationally. We will continue to support investment in infrastructure to deliver high levels of housing output and improve affordability and availability of housing for first-time buyers.

A number of concerted measures have been taken through targeted affordable housing programmes to increase the availability of affordable housing. These include the shared ownership scheme, the 1999 affordable housing scheme, affordable housing under Part V of the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2004 and the affordable housing initiative agreed as part of Sustaining Progress.

Politicians and media people continually misquote, deliberately or otherwise, our output of affordable houses per year. We have four schemes — which is perhaps part of the confusion — but the output of affordable houses last year was just 2,900, which is very significant.