Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It was not from yourselves, and I did not say it was, but please appreciate the legacy we had to deal with at that stage with unemployment at whatever rate it was at - 15%, 16% or 17%. The challenges we faced were immense. Did we get everything right? I am not saying we did, but certainly we are not responsible for everything that is wrong or has been wrong in housing in recent years. We had a lot to deal with.

In the four and a half years between the time the Rebuilding Ireland plan was launched in the summer of 2016 up to the election, more than 83,500 new homes were built. Fine Gael in government passed new legislation regarding rent pressure zones, RPZs, and more power to the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB. The help to buy scheme that was highlighted by Senator Cummins has been a major success. More than 36,000 first-time buyers have benefited from the scheme the Senators want to get rid of. The Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme, which has been renamed the local authority home loan scheme, provides home loans to people, and 1,640 first-time buyers benefited in that period. In addition, schemes such as the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, have assisted. For example the new town of Clonburris in Dublin, which will provide 8,700 new homes, has received €186,000 from that initiative which came about under Fine Gael. There have been many successes in this and Housing for All is an excellent plan. It carries on many of the initiatives that were included under the Rebuilding Ireland plan. Many of the projects that have been delivered and are now open or are having their tapes cut, as it were, were initiatives under Rebuilding Ireland. I have visited some of them. Some are ongoing and it is hoped some will be opened by the Minister or a Minister within those areas as well.

As someone who has fully supported unpopular social housing developments in communities, I take exception to this ideological bullshit that I hear about Fine Gael.