Between 2010 and 2019, Ireland had one of the largest increases in Europe in the numbers of people aged 25 to 34 still living in their childhood bedrooms. Since the Minister took office, home ownership has fallen to its lowest level in more than 50 years. Rents have reached record highs and the number of people living in homeless emergency accommodation has exceeded 12,000 for the first time. Last year, the Minister returned €246 million to the Exchequer in funds left unspent. That money could and should have been used to build more social and affordable homes. With record homelessness, record rents and record numbers living in their childhood bedrooms, how can the Minister possibly justify leaving €246 million unspent?

Last year, my Department spent €3.5 billion on housing alone, which is more money than has ever been spent on it in the history of the State. As the Deputy knows, there were issues with supply chains, particularly following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, that led to some projects falling out of 2022 and into 2023. That is just the reality of what happened. Even though it happened, we still managed to deliver more new social homes last year than we have done since 1975. Affordable homes are being provided for the first time in a generation, through local authorities and the Land Development Agency, and more people are being supported to buy their own home. There were 25,000 first-time buyer mortgage drawdowns last year. One in two new homes purchased in 2022 were purchased by a first-time buyer using schemes like the first home scheme and the help-to-buy grant, which is being further expanded.

We need to turn the corner on home ownership. Rates have been dropping since 1991. The recent census figures show a very small decrease in the past six years. We can reverse that.