One of the key promises that the Government made in advance of the last election was around housing and its delivery. It would be churlish not to acknowledge that there has been a big increase in the amount of housing coming on board. I think we are at a 15-year high. Social housing is also being built, albeit not at the rate that the Government and I would like to see.

However, there is a cohort of people caught in the middle and not being helped, a cohort without whom we would not have this State. In Clare, the threshold for social housing for a single person is €35,000. The lowest level of earnings that someone can obtain affordable housing on under any of the affordable housing schemes in Clare is €55,000, yet there is a large group of people in between the €35,000 and €55,000 who have little hope of getting a home. For example, the first point on the Garda incremental pay scale is €35,322, primary teachers start at €40,625, secondary teachers start at almost €2,000 more, nurses’ entry level is €39,000, local government branch librarians or clerical officers start at €27,000 – in theory, they could qualify for social housing – and the starting amount for a lab analyst is €37,000. As such, a large cohort of people do not qualify for social housing but cannot avail of affordable housing. What will the Government do in its remaining time to give them hope? We worry a great deal about people emigrating, and there is a variety of reasons for them doing so. For example, there are people who emigrate to experience the world and come back. However, one of the reasons young people cite for emigrating is that they cannot realistically hope to buy a house on their starting income levels after completing their education. What does the Government plan to do for these people?

I thank the Deputy for acknowledging that there has been an increase in house completions. The Central Statistics Office indicated today that 32,695 houses were completed in 2023. That is a 10% increase on 2022, which saw a 45% increase on 2021. The momentum on house building is in the right direction. Without question, Covid held us back. Over 100,000 houses will have been built since this Government came to office and we are making significant progress, but we need to do more. What was significant in the CSO’s figures this morning was the increase in the number of apartments completed in 2023, namely, 11,642, which was up 28%. The importance of this is that we were grappling with the viability question in respect of apartments. The waiving of development levies and other measures that we took last year are having an impact on the increase.

The Deputy has raised a fair issue. The number of first-time buyers is way up. The help-to-buy and first home schemes are helping many people who are buying at different price ranges. People have also shown huge interest in the vacant housing grants, which amount to €50,000 and €70,000, respectively. These could cover some of the people in the cohort that the Deputy referenced. Each week, approximately 500 first-time buyers are buying their first homes and approximately 29,000 first-time buyer mortgages were approved in the first 11 months of 2023. There is increased momentum and we are going in the right direction in terms of housing supply, but we need to do more and progressively increase the numbers. This year, I hope that we can go higher than the figure of nearly 33,000.

We increased the income threshold for local authority housing and social housing by €5,000 last year, but the Deputy has pointed out the gap between that and some of the affordable housing schemes. I do not know whether the Deputy is factoring in the help-to-buy scheme or the first home scheme. We also have the cost-rental scheme, which has proven effective. It is a new model that was really only introduced in the past two years, but it is gaining traction all the time. It results in rents of approximately 25% below the market rate. We will continue to innovate to see whether we can enable as many people as possible who want to buy their own homes to do so at an affordable price and within their income range brackets.

I appreciate the figures the Deputy has tabled in respect of income levels. Interestingly, and to bring in another debate, Defence Forces personnel compare favourably with some of the other starting rates the Deputy outlined, given the increases we have allocated in recent years.

I acknowledge the challenge the Deputy has outlined. We need to work on developing schemes that can be applied to people in that cohort.

There is a question mark over whether Covid held the Government back or whether the Government’s response to Covid and the regulations it introduced regarding house building specifically held the situation back. People could not put a roof on a house down a rural road without gardaí being called. It seemed ridiculous at the time, but I do not want to digress into that discussion.

I acknowledge that houses are being built and the number of first-time buyers is increasing, but what of the squeezed middle? When I grew up, people who worked in the local chipboard factory, which was the big employer, could get a council house. They could move into that house with their family and say that it was the home in which they would bring up their families. Young gardaí, teachers, nurses, local authority employees and civil servants who are starting out now do not have that possibility. That is the cohort I am specifically asking about. They are caught between the income they need for affordable housing – income levels in the Defence Forces may be increasing, but such housing is still beyond the reach of its personnel – and the level at which they can get social housing. The latter threshold has been increased, but it still leaves a huge gap into which ordinary people fall. We talk about our State, but without these people, it cannot exist. They cannot hope to move into a house and call it their own in the Ireland of today. Notwithstanding the advances that the Government has made in the provision of housing, those advances are for people with a lot of money, and we do not pay these people on whom our State relies a lot of money, at least when they are starting out. Maybe we do after ten or 15 years, but they are almost middle-aged at that point.

That is the problem.

I do not agree entirely that people cannot avail of the schemes. Quite a number are availing of them. I know people like those the Deputy just described who have been in a position to purchase homes. The situation is particularly acute in Dublin, which I acknowledge.

I am talking about Clare specifically.

It is possible in Clare for people in the areas the Deputy identified to purchase homes, particularly with the support of the help-to-buy scheme, the first home and various grant schemes and the local authority home loans that have been made available. It is improving. I know of people in exactly the categories the Deputy mentioned who have managed to purchase homes in the past year or two.

Are these single-income families?

The majority are double-income families. No question, and I acknowledge that. The Deputy makes a fair point in that regard. It is a combination of factors, but there has been huge take-up in respect of the help-to-buy scheme. The first home scheme is particularly geared towards trying to help people bridge the gap in the context of what a house costs, with the State providing equity to make up the balance in order to enable people to afford to buy homes. We will continue to work at it.