Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will make the point, and I have said it repeatedly in the House, that housing is the single most urgent and important social issue facing our people at this moment in time. Access to housing is fundamental to our security, social cohesion, opportunity for people and progress as a nation. There is not a family in the country untouched by the crisis. I respectfully suggest the Deputy does not have a monopoly on this issue in terms of empathy or understanding of the crisis facing many individuals and young people. I suggest everybody in the House knows of the challenges facing younger people in respect of being in the position either of being able to afford a house or to afford rent to pay on a house.

The Deputy attacked the Government plan but has not produced an alternative plan. The Housing for All plan is the most substantive document produced by anybody in the House. The Government produced it. It has been updated, refreshed and includes many different schemes. I have not seen any substantive, alternative document detailing how people think we will get to 35,000 or 40,000 houses. I just have not seen it. There is a responsibility in this regard. It is legitimate to criticise the Government plan, but there is a real obligation on the Deputy and others to produce coherent plans that will lead to increased supply.

Increased supply is the issue. We have exceeded our targets. Last year, we had close to 33,000 houses. The commencement data, which will be out at 2 p.m., confirms that house building continues to gain momentum. We had 4,900 housing starts in March of this year. That is an increase of 51% on March of last year. That is the highest number of homes commenced in any March since records began in 2015. Building began on approximately 12,000 homes in the first three months of 2024. This is 63% up on the same time in 2023. That is because of measures we took to accelerate and boost housing construction and commencements. Ultimately, however, even though we have delivered 100,000 houses since 2020, it is not enough. The demand is higher than the supply, which is the fundamental issue leading to price increases and huge challenges for people.

We have brought in significant affordability schemes, including the help to buy scheme and the first home scheme. There are capital grants for vacant houses, which are up to €70,000 in the case of dereliction. Some 4,000 people have now applied for those grants whereby they can live in those houses, if they are refurbished, brought back from dereliction, or if vacant houses are refurbished. There have been substantial numbers of applications to the first home scheme. That is real assistance on the affordability question.

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