Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

Home ownership has collapsed under Fine Gael. As I have said, 100,000 fewer under-40s own their own home today as did before Fine Gael entered government. The average age at which a person first owns their own home in this State today is 39. All of these kids, these adults, know that their lives are on pause not because they cannot get a job or because the economy is not booming, but because home ownership and family formation is paused for many of them. I have an 18-year-old and a 17-year-old at home. It is now normal for people to be thinking of heading to Australia when they are that age. That should never be normal but that is what has happened. The Deputy talks about schemes. The reality is that, since Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael entered government, house prices in this city of Dublin have gone up by €100,000. The Government will do something for people in one area but push house prices up by €100,000 on the other end. Before Deputy English came in, I made the point that institutional funds have bought 6,200 apartments in this State in the last year. That is four times more than what they were buying before this Government came into office.

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