Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Question 137: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the steps he is taking to help young people to gain access to the property market; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5252/06]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has actively addressed the issue of housing affordability. Our policy has been to make housing supply more responsive to demand to improve affordability and access to housing, particularly for first time buyers. There is clear evidence that this policy is having effect; 2005 was the eleventh year of record overall house completions, with more than 80,000 completions. Increased investment has resulted in some 100,000 households benefiting from the range of targeted social and affordable housing measures since 1997.

In addition to planning, taxation and other measures such as mortgage interest relief, the Government has placed a particular emphasis on targeted affordable housing measures which are designed to assist those who cannot access affordable housing without assistance. These include the shared ownership scheme, the 1999 affordable housing scheme, affordable housing through Part V of the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2004 and the affordable housing initiative in Sustaining Progress. We will streamline these schemes to make them simpler to implement and understand but, in the meantime, eligibility and subsidy levels under the various schemes were increased in January this year. About 15,000 households will benefit under these measures in the next three years.

In addition, the affordable homes partnership, which we established last year, is already making good progress in its efforts to accelerate the delivery of affordable housing in the greater Dublin area where the problem is most acute. The recently launched housing policy framework, building sustainable communities, will ensure that we build on our achievements to date, continue to create the conditions where housing output will meet demand and provide targeted support for those with affordability problems.