Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

As I rise, I am very conscious of the funeral today of a giant of the press gallery, David Davin-Power. I know I join colleagues across this House in extending my sympathies to David's wife Dearbhla, to his five children and to his wider friends and family. I know we all think of David and his family at this very sad time. We all remember him fondly in this House, as well as his incredible contribution.

I thank Deputy McDonald for raising what is an incredibly important issue, namely, housing. I agree housing is the biggest challenge that faces this generation and it must be the number one priority for government, but we are making progress. The Deputy's failure to acknowledge that progress is not borne out by the realities being experienced by people across this country. There are now 500 individuals or couples buying their first home every week. Deputy McDonald never seems to meet these people but I meet them regularly. People are buying houses each and every week, getting their homes, moving out of the box room, moving in with their partner and moving into a place they can start their career from. We have had housing commencement figures that are really quite extraordinary. Construction is now starting on over 49,000 homes so far this year. This is important progress and something that should give cause for optimism.

Of course, all of this is backed up by the largest housing budget ever in budget 2025. This coming year will see a record €6 billion of capital investment in housing. That is up 20% on last year's allocation. In addition to that, unlike Sinn Féin's plans, which would pull the rug from under first-time buyers, we are actually extending the first home scheme out to 2029 and extending the help-to-buy scheme, which is a scheme that has helped 50,000 first-time buyers. Sinn Féin wants to abolish it for some reason. We are also providing an extra €80 million for the first home scheme as well. We are increasing the renter's tax credit both now and again into next year and today, we agreed housing targets that roughly speaking will see, for every one home that was delivered during the lifetime of this Government, an ability to deliver two over the course of the next five years. That is genuine progress.

The Deputy is quite right that people will have time very shortly to give their view and verdict not just on our housing plans but also on her party's plans.

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