Mary Lou McDonald: Government failing on affordable homes

Minister, your government keeps telling people that affordable home ownership is just around the corner but that's not true. The latest report published this morning confirms this. That report from myhome.ie and the Bank of Ireland makes for very very grim reading for everybody but especially for young people trying to get their first home. The report shows that house prices are continuing to rise and that selling prices are well above even those seven and a half percent above asking. So this is pricing more and more people, especially young people, out of buying their own home. The median asking price for a home statewide is now 400,000 euros and here in Dublin it's close to half a million euro. These are startling headline figures but they don't tell the full story of the runaway house prices. Some counties have experienced double digit increases in the last year. Kilkenny, Roscommon and Mayo have seen 25,000 euros added to house prices and at the heart of this crisis Minister is broken government policy. Policy built on empty promises rather than delivery. So for example you promised to deliver 2,100 affordable homes to buy last year but how many did you actually deliver? The answer is 935. And by the way most of these homes were not affordable to the vast majority of working people. Homes that you describe as affordable often have price tags of 400,000 euros or more. That's not affordable not for a nurse, for a retail worker, for a van driver, not for a child care worker, not for the vast vast majority of young people trying to raise a family. So this can't go on Minister. We need to do so much better. We need so much more ambition. We need to make homes affordable. We need to make it easier for people to get their first home. We need to deliver the largest council housing building program in the history of the state. We need to tackle the rip off rents that make it so hard impossible even for young people to save for a deposit. I believe that we can restore hope. That we can get back to a place where ordinary people who work hard, who save hard, can have and buy a home of their own. That's the promise that we have to make real for our young people. That they will have their opportunity to build the life that they deserve here at home in Ireland. And that means we need vision, energy and a break from serving the interests of corporate landlords, of speculators and of property funds, to focus on workers, families and our young people. Do you accept that house prices are continuing to rise? Do you accept that prices of 400,000 euros is not affordable for ordinary people? Do you accept that government delivering only 935 affordable homes last year is absolutely pitiful? And do you now recognize that we need a major change of direction to end this crisis and to deliver those homes that our people need? Thank you Deputy. And just to say this government wants to give hope to young people, to people who want to get an affordable home. It's the single biggest focus of government in everything we do. It's about building a hope around delivering more home ownership, delivering increased supply of social homes and assuring that we bring affordability to all of our interventions. And that's why all of the reforms that we've introduced are all about trying to increase supply. Something that you don't acknowledge in all of your contributions. You attack, you criticize and you object, but you don't support policy which actually works in enabling greater supply. And if you take the 2025 delivery, we had record delivery and strong growth. 17,500 starter home supports delivered in 2025, the highest annual total recorded, a 21% increase compared to 2024. And that demonstrates the sustained government's investment and accelerating progress in housing delivery. And we've seen increased supply will help moderate overall price growth and help to ease affordability challenges over the next number of years as we ramp up supply across the board. That's why the level of investment in capital infrastructure and housing has been prioritized by government in our national development plan. And if you look at the CSO data show prices fell month to month for the first time in almost three years at minus 0.2% in February following a period of moderation and 1% for consecutive months. And while prices have remained stable between March and April respectively. So the policy of government is working, the reforms introduced by Minister Brown is working as well. And what I would ask you is, why do you continue to oppose government policy that actually supports affordability? That we have tens of thousands of people who've benefited from the Help to Buy scheme that's bridged the gap for young people who are working hard and want a government that supports them, bridge the gap in terms of affordability supports. You oppose that. Many of your councillors across different local authorities and even yourself in Dublin Central, continuously opposing homes and supply opportunities in your own constituency. Again promoting local objectives and nimbyism over the greater good. That's Sinn Féin's policy. Opposition on the ground and attacking government at a national level. It's just not good enough. It's not serious politics and what we need is supply-side interventions which drive tens of thousands of more homes and completions across the board. Matching the record level of support in terms of social housing delivery with affordability supports which bridge the gap for young people. And that's what's working. That's what will ensure that we've increased supply in 2026 with the reforms we're introducing around increased zoning and the measures being taken by Minister Brown around the housing infrastructure investment fund. Again providing that enabling infrastructure locally to deliver more homes in the villages and towns across the country that have had constraints around water systems, been able to connect energy and other local infrastructure constraints which has harmed housing supply. So this government will continue to invest in infrastructure to provide affordability supports for young people which you continue to oppose. You need to front up with young people about why Sinn Féin continues to oppose affordability supports for young people. Again we want to match that with continued increase of supply in terms of social homes across the country. That's why we've put significant capital investment aside to support our approved housing bodies in terms of cost rental around with local authorities in driving increased supply social homes while we while we improve the overall supply situation. And we're seeing the moderation happen in CSO data and increased supply will help that overall with the affordability supports that you continue to shamefully oppose. Thank you Deputy MacDonald. Deputy MacDonald. Well I'm sure that I am not the only person struck by the profound irony of you telling me that supply is the thing when in fact your government only managed to deliver 935 affordable homes last year. So if supply is the thing and it is the thing you are failing abjectly on that measure. On the measure of affordability 400,000 euros is simply not affordable to ordinary working people and especially younger ones and and half a million here in Dublin is absolutely out of the question. Do you accept minister that today as per this report that house prices are continuing to rise, that asking prices are continuing to rise even more, that people are priced out of getting their first home. Do you accept when I tell you that we need to change tact to ensure that people can get their home, that people who work hard, save hard can afford to own their own home. And do you accept that there needs to be a change of direction or will you continue with simply with the rinse and repeat policy of failure. What I would say is your policy is a complete and utter failure. It's a dishonest policy position when it comes to improving housing supply. It's populist waffle. On the ground in Dublin Central Sinn Féin oppose housing project after housing project which young people could be living in day in day out and that's that's the issue there that we have to have an honest conversation about how we improve supply across the housing system. For you to oppose housing every day every week in your own constituency and then to lecture government on not doing enough shows a complete contradiction of Sinn Féin policy, populism and nimbyism on the ground and then waffle and rhetoric in here. You need to get real about honesty around housing around housing policy and we need to provide supply side alter supply no supply will improve affordability with the affordability interventions that government is making something you continually oppose. You have a complete contradiction in housing policy and it gives no hope for young people. We'd have less homes to be built if we were to follow the law.