Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair, Leader and Senators for their speeches, contributions and questions. I do not think I will be able to cover them all in the time I have and I do not know all the answers to the questions. However, I will do my best to touch on some of the topics that were mentioned more than once.

Housing was one of those topics. In the run-up to Christmas, I took the opportunity to try to understand the situation a little better. I spent a night with SafetyNet, a group of doctors and medics who visit rough sleepers. I spent some time visiting family hubs, which are good accommodation providing people do not end up there for long periods. They provide high-quality accommodation. Somebody accompanying me on the visit to SafetyNet described the housing crisis better than I could understand it. She said that if we look at things from a general point of view, and look back at Ireland for the last 20, 30 or 40 years, we usually built about 30,000 houses a year. Then for ten years we did not build any. If one takes 20,000 times ten, there is a deficit of about 200,000 properties in the country. They would have been new homes bought mainly by young people and first-time buyers. Those 200,000 households, because most of them would be couples, who did not buy homes in the past ten years are now renting. That has pushed a lot of people who otherwise would be renting off the housing ladder. In many ways that has given rise to the problems that we face now. It is not all about supply but that is the main issue.

It is not going to be possible to build 200,000 houses overnight or in one, two or even three years. It is possible to build them over a prolonged period of time with the right policies. That is what we need to do. We should not forget how the housing crisis came about. It was because we had a lost decade and an enormous financial and economic crisis. The State was unable to afford to build social housing and the banking, private and construction sectors all collapsed and were unable to build private housing. We had a lost decade during which almost no houses were built and there was almost no investment in our transport infrastructure or capital investment in health care. That has now given rise to the problems we have in health care, housing and traffic congestion.

I am conscious that the party I lead was not responsible for creating that economic crisis. I am also conscious of the fact that many of the parties that criticise us, that have never served time in government, opposed every single policy decision we made along the way to get us out of the economic crisis. Notwithstanding that this was a crisis caused by others and the solution was opposed by others, we now have the opportunity in our hands, because we balanced the books and because the economy is growing again, to start to invest in our infrastructure, housing, health care, education, transport and everything else.

We intend to do all of those things but it is only possible if we manage the economy well, balance the books, keep debt under control, do not allow credit to explode and make sure the country remains competitive. I fear when I hear the Opposition speaking every week, not so much in this House but certainly in the other House, it is as though they have learned nothing from the crisis we faced. I am starting to hear the same stuff we used to hear before the last crisis. Spend more, spend more, spend more on everything. The leader of one party proposed the State provide 97% mortgages. Tax breaks for developers was proposed by the spokesperson for another party. That type of thing terrifies me because, in front of me in the Dáil all around to my left, I am hearing all the same demands for the same policies that landed us in the crisis in the first place ten or 11 years ago. That is something I will talk about more in the future.

In terms of our economic recovery, I love this term of being outside the M50. I have never lived inside the M50. I have probably spent the night inside the M50 less than most people from rural Ireland. I remind people there is a whole Dublin outside the M50, in case people do not know about it. I refer to places like Swords, Blanchardstown, Lucan, Malahide and Tallaght and so many other places. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, is spending a lot more time on the outskirts of the city because that is where a lot of housing is being built. I have been telling him that I have been introducing him to that whole place called "Dublin more than 10". There is a whole Dublin more than 10. In fact there are 24 of us, and a few other post codes as well.

It is not the truth to say that the recovery has only happened inside the M50 or inside the Dublin area. Those are just not the facts. Unemployment is down substantially in every county. There is not a single county where unemployment is not down by more than half. Employment is up in every county and region. Of the new jobs created in the last couple of years, 70% have been outside the Dublin area. One of the great things I get to do as Taoiseach, and formerly as a Minister, is to travel the country all the time. I have seen how places have changed in the past five or ten years. Galway is really booming. It is a city that is doing really well. I was in Cork recently and it is great to see the activity that is happening there with Páirc Uí Chaoimh finally open. We are going to get the convention centre done as well, Members can be sure of that.