Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Warfield referred to the 7,900 houses, which is the figure for this year. There will be more than 7,900 houses provided this year. The Senator might be referring to next year, when the figure will be 10,000. The full 10,000 houses to be delivered next year is a combination of direct build, acquisition and leasing. That will be 10,000 new houses in the system, not all of which will be direct build. The figure of 7,900 is the total that we hope to have delivered for 2018. This is again a combination of build, acquisition and leasing. To be clear, when we say leasing, it is long-term housing and is not like the HAP or RAS.

Many home loans have been approved but have not been drawn down. There is an ongoing review of that scheme also and we are making changes to that. Reference was made to income cap limits. Research on this was conducted on our behalf with the Housing Agency and we will have this on our desks soon. We can then make changes based on recommendations. It is an issue that is raised a lot, and we are on top of it.

Reference was made to the 10% deposit rules but, with respect to the Senator, in the past, people were encouraged to borrow more than they could afford. They then used those borrowings to pay too much for houses. It was not their fault as they were encouraged to do it. I will not say by whom, when or why because the Senator knows that. It was wrong. Too many people from my generation have been left with mortgages that will take them 40 years to pay back at a hell of lot of interest on a monthly basis. It was wrong. The Central Bank has rules to limit what people can borrow and rightly so. In some cases, this is helping to keep the prices of houses down and more realistic. We will also use the same rules with our loan scheme regarding deposit requirements. This is to make sure that people do not over borrow at levels they cannot sustain. What happened in the past was wrong-----