Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak with colleagues in the Seanad on the Government's housing policy. I was happy to take up this job at a time of great flux within our society generally and in the housing sector in particular. We live in a time of great uncertainty and one of our greatest challenges is to bring back stability to a battered and bruised economy. There can be no doubt in anyone's mind that the "irrational exuberance" in the property market, to borrow a phrase, was the main culprit in the now sorry tale of the Celtic tiger years. Such exuberance was encouraged by the previous Administration, which became drunk on the heady income stream the boom generated. The party is over and my colleagues and I must clean up the mess left from the party that has left us all with the mother of all hangovers.

I need not remind Members of the turmoil in which this State was embroiled last spring, nor of the painful sacrifices the Irish people have borne with fortitude in the interim. The disaster zone the Government inherited in the housing area meant that new ideas and fresh thinking were absolutely essential and the delivery of a radical new policy framework sooner rather than later was needed urgently. The Government's housing policy statement was published just three months after taking office and it has been diligent in ensuring the initiatives outlined have been actioned with all possible speed. This new housing policy statement responds to current and emerging conditions in the housing sector, taking account of the dramatic cycle of rapid growth and sudden collapse in the residential property market. The centrepiece of the approach is to chart a way forward for housing policy in Ireland by placing greater emphasis on choice, equity across housing tenures and the delivery of quality outcomes for the resources invested.

The recently burst property bubble was driven by low interest rates, easy access to money, loose regulation and a construction sector that failed to gauge the capacity for demand. Irish people have long aspired to owning their own homes and I consider this ambition admirable but only where the circumstances of the borrower allow it. The State is far from blameless in this regard. Responding to this ethos of home ownership, successive Fianna Fáil-led Governments have overly-incentivised acquisition. Since I was elected to the Dáil in 1998, I have sat through many Budget Statements in which various incentives were announced for the purchasing of houses and other property.