There is a more long-standing order of the House covering Leaders' Questions.

Is the Government trying to add to the agony of the tens of thousands of young workers who are priced out of the housing market? The Minister for Social and Family Affairs announced a study, which will take several months, on some kind of mortgage support for them, during which the price of a house will have increased a further €10,000 and created even more problems for them. Is the Minister cynically constructing an alibi to defend himself from a belt from the Comptroller and Audit General over shovelling around €400 million of taxpayers' money to speculator landlords in rent supplements, instead of building social and affordable houses for the 50,000 families who are priced out the market and the tens of thousands of other young workers who cannot afford to buy a house?

Is it not striking that in nine years of his party being in Government, any time he has feebly examined the rocketing house prices, he has never once pointed at the real source of the problem, namely, the land speculator, the profiteering developer and the financial institution? The Government's policies have bloated them further rather than cut them off at the legs.

Hear, hear.

Typical young workers are in their 30s and in Dublin they will pay €375,000 for a new home. My Independent colleagues advise me that a similar position applies through the country.

It is disgraceful.

Young people who must pay €375,000 for a three bedroomed home are forced to take a 40-year mortgage. This morning I asked a bank manager to work out the figures based on the house price I gave and he told me that, on a mere 4% constant interest, a person would have to pay a staggering €750,000 before he or she would own the home. If interest rates increase to only 6%, the house buyer would have to pay the even more staggering price of €1 million for a modest home. Young people will be in their 70s and still paying their mortgages. Is it any wonder the Minister for Social and Family Affairs is on a systematic campaign to undermine the entirely human and reasonable expectation that workers should retire at 60 or 65 years of age with a reasonable pension when Government policy on housing is utterly subservient to the capitalist marketplace and workers will be enslaved to the banks into their 70s merely to put a roof over their heads?

Why are there not foot high headlines about the extent of this extortion in the media? Every wing of the establishment is compromised in property speculation.

Hear, hear.

Rich doctors, rich lawyers and politicians are up to their necks in it. Endless acreage of advertising by house developers means endless millions in advertising revenue for newspaper proprietors. There is a powerful vested coalition of interests conspiring to cover up the extent of the rip-off of young workers and the Government is assisting those vested interests. How does the Taoiseach answer in that regard?

I am trying to work out what was the question.

It was a speech from the dock.

The question was very clear.

The only question I could pick up was that Deputy Joe Higgins asked if a review is taking place of the rent subsidy for the 60,000 people who are in receipt of it. The answer to that question is yes, such a review is taking place. It is designed to find ways and mechanisms and to encourage those concerned to use many of the schemes in place to obtain home ownership rather than to remain endlessly in receipt of rent subsidies which is against their better social interests.

They cannot afford to buy a home, as the Taoiseach well knows.

I ask the Deputy to allow the Taoiseach to reply without interruption.

The State pays huge rent subsidies to these 60,000 people.

It pays the subsidies to the landlords.

It would be far better——

It would be far better to deal with the paymasters.

Some common sense is needed.

We need to take on the speculators.

Deputy Gogarty, please.

It is a valid point, a Cheann Comhairle.

The Deputy is not the leader of the Technical Group.

He thinks he is.

He is working on it.

It would be far better to provide homes for these people.

Why does the Government not do that?

Deputy Joe Higgins knows — there is no point in repeating it — that Ireland has one of the highest rates of home ownership in the world.

It is declining dramatically.

On affordable housing, we are investing substantial resources in significant numbers of houses. It is envisaged that more than 15,000 units will be delivered under various affordable housing schemes this year, next year and into 2008. I gave the details of the Part V programme and the other programmes last week. The total provision of social and affordable housing was €2 billion last year. We are providing €2 billion to address the various issues.

That money is helping to increase the profits of the building industry.

As Deputy Joe Higgins pointed out, we spend €400 million on rent supplements each year. That money goes to private landlords. The point made by the Minister, Deputy Brennan, is that it would be far better to spend a substantial part of that money on housing, in addition to the €2 billion we are spending on social housing, rather than giving it to landlords and others involved in this business.

Hear, hear.

The State is spending this money.

The Government has been in power for nine years.

This is a very progressive way of bringing about social change——

Nine years.

——rather than handing out hundreds of millions of euro, year in, year out.

The Government is doing that.

In a five-year period——

There is no point in blaming us.

——we would hand out €2 billion to landlords.

That is meaningless.

Listen, Joe.

You should listen, Joe.

Why has the Government not done something about it before now?

It needs to provide more housing.

What we want to do is to use that money.

Why is the Government not building more houses?

After nine years in power——

Deputy Joe Higgins always gets upset when the Government tries to solve some of the problems he raises.

The Government caused the problems.

He never wants to solve the problems.

These are the Government's problems.

He comes from the category——

The Taoiseach is fooling nobody.

His business is in keeping the poor poor. That gives him a reason to go on.

He has been in power for nine years.

The Deputy has no good policies. He is just a negative politician.

The Government wants to keep people in poverty traps and hovels.

He never wants to see people getting out of anything. He follows the worst of 1930s socialism.

At least they built houses in the 1930s.

Many new houses were built in the 1930s.

We need to move on to Europe Day.

The Government has had nine years in which to take some action.

I call Deputy Deasy, who is the Chairman of the Joint Committee on European Affairs, to make a statement.

Nine years.

Deputy Joe Higgins is in grave ideological error.

I would like to ask a supplementary question.

We need to move on.

The Deputy can thank comrade Deasy.

Last Thursday, the Dáil passed an order that I would call Deputy Deasy at 11 a.m.

What about my supplementary questions?

I think the Deputy is in deep enough.

The Minister can talk.

Comrade Deasy.

What about comrade O'Dea?

Allow Deputy Deasy to make his statement.

What is the hurry?

The Government has had nine years.

I wanted to ask some supplementary questions.

In the hearing of the Chair, the Deputy asked at least two supplementary questions. Deputy Deasy to continue.

Perhaps there is a conspiracy against the Deputy.

The Taoiseach never answered my questions.

The Deputy is asking the hard questions — that is why.

The Government should get on with building the houses.