Michael McCarthy (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. This is one of many debates we have had on housing in the past four years and each time we have debated the issue it has been more relevant and significant, with house prices becoming more expensive than on the previous occasion.

Before the summer the Minister of State gave a commitment with regard to staged payments. This issue is largely confined to the Cork region where developers negotiate staged payments with purchasers. Payments are made at wall plate level, at the roofing stage, when windows and doors are sealed, etc., and the mortgage is eventually drawn down over the period of construction. A Bill sponsored by one of the Independent Senators and Senators Coghlan and Ryan was introduced in the Seanad and the Minister of State gave a commitment then to examine the issue and prevent this practice, which only affects that pocket of the country. The practice is inherently wrong. People are cash-strapped and the arguments in favour of stopping the practice go without saying. The Minister of State was aware of the issue and I want to know what he has done about it since it was brought to his attention.

We have consistently been told by the Government that housing output has never been as high. Nobody disputes the figures, which are historically high over the past nine years, but we are faced with an affordability gap and the number of people who can afford to buy these houses is continually decreasing. When I hear the line about the historically high output I feel sick because the number of people being pushed further away from these houses increases on a weekly basis, all on account of affordability. Contrary to what the Minister of State said, supply has not improved the affordability issue. The situation has disimproved and become far more serious for the thousands of couples in the country who cannot afford to buy their own home.

I raised a matter on the Order of Business to do with home ownership and the cohabitation rule of the Department of Social and Family Affairs. In April this year, the Minister, Deputy Brennan, announced that he intended to abolish the rule in his overall approach to lone parents. A couple I know wanted to purchase their own house and avail of the rule. They provided their income details to the mortgage company, but it has refused to view the lone parent allowance as income because it fears the mother will lose the payment if the couple move into the house. This affects one aspect of affordability. Senator O'Rourke also raised this issue. It is one that may have slipped the radar but it should be taken on board by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs. It has prevented the couple I know from owning their own home. They must now try to obtain social or affordable housing, but there is a scarcity of these units in west Cork.