Tá an Phríomh-Oifig Staidrimh anois ag rá go bhfuil an gnáthphraghas tithíochta i mBaile Átha Cliath tar éis dul chomh hard le €500,000. Tá an Rialtas i gcónaí ag rá linn go bhfuil praghsanna tithe ró-ard, ach tá siad ag ardú bliain i ndiaidh bliana faoin Rialtas seo. Ní fadhb í seo do Bhaile Átha Cliath amháin. Tá praghsanna tithe ag ardú níos gasta taobh amuigh de Bhaile Átha Cliath ná mar atá siad taobh istigh de Bhaile Átha Cliath. Tá praghsanna imithe suas €32,000 le bliain anuas ar fud an Stáit, agus níos mó ná 14% i gcontaetha ar nós Contae Laoise, Contae an Longfoirt, Contae Uíbh Fhailí agus Contae na hIarmhí. Ar fud an Stáit le díreach ceithre bliana anuas, tá praghsanna tar éis léimt breis is €100,000. Cén dóigh inar féidir leis an Rialtas seasamh leis sin? Cén dóigh inar féidir leis seasamh leis go bhfuil tithe ag dul in airde le €100,000 taobh istigh de cheithre bliana?

The Central Statistics Office now tells us the typical price of a home in Dublin has reached €500,000. The Tánaiste repeatedly tells us that prices are too high, yet they are rising higher and higher year after year under his Government. In just four years alone, prices have jumped by €100,000 across the State. How can you stand over this? To buy a typical home in Dublin now requires an income of over €100,000. People in the Tánaiste's own area where he comes from in County Wicklow need an income of €130,000. There are parts of this city where people need an income above €150,000 to purchase a typical home. The vast majority of workers are nowhere near that level. That is the reality. Even two solid, decent incomes are no longer enough. How is anyone going to live in Dublin? How is a nurse, a garda or a young teacher to build a life here? How is a couple who are working hard, paying their taxes and doing everything asked of them supposed to compete in a market that has spiralled completely beyond their reach?

The crisis is deeply personal now. When young people who are trying to buy their first home look at their parents' generation, they see that people of that generation were able to marry, buy a home and raise children in their 20s or early 30s. Now, those young people see a future taken from them. They are ten years behind that timeline. It is a lost decade for this generation. They cannot start a family, put down roots or plan their lives. They watch their 30s slip away while prices surge further out of reach. They feel locked out not because they have failed but because the system has failed them. This is a social emergency now. Just last night, the Government voted to allow vulture funds to bid against ordinary families who are trying to buy houses, further exacerbating the problem. Every single CSO release confirms the brutal reality out there. People are being priced out of their communities, the places where they work and their country. I am sure the Tánaiste will say again that supply is the answer. If the typical home costs €500,000, ordinary people will still be locked out. This is not just a housing challenge; it is an affordability catastrophe. I ask the Tánaiste directly a very simple question that so many young people are asking me and I am sure have asked him: how high do house prices have to rise before the Government realises that its policies are simply not working? Is it €600,000 or €700,000? Make no mistake - that is the direction of travel the Government is taking this country in. How is anybody supposed to live in Dublin given these prices? How high do prices have to go before the penny drops with the Tánaiste?

We all know that house prices are too high for too many but it is also important that we do not misunderstand what a median price is. A median price does not refer to every house or indeed a typical house, as the Deputy said, in Dublin. Anyone who searches online will see many homes available in Dublin for below €500,000. That is not to take away from the challenge in relation to affordability but it is an important point of clarification. The Deputy also chose not to reference a number of other statistics published in that same report by the CSO yesterday which speak to the very people the Deputy wished me to speak to. They speak to young people wanting to buy their first home. The figures yesterday also showed that 50,583 homes were purchased last year and that almost 40% of them were purchased by the very first-time buyers the Deputy referenced. The number of homes purchased last year was up from 48,775 in the previous year. It almost doubled the number of transactions in 2013. It is important when we pick reports that we look at all of the figures in that report. The report yesterday also showed that there were more first-time buyers in 2025 than in 2024 and more homes and transactions around homes in 2025 than in 2024. I was pleased to see in the figures that the proportion of first-time buyers was also up, to almost 40%, with 19,680 of that total being first-time buyers. I want to put those facts out there to have a rounded conversation on where we are at regarding housing, housing supply and first-time buyers. Yes, I will say that supply is the key to all of this because it is. We have got to continue every single day to see what more we can do to increase the number of homes. There are some positive signs which are not often acknowledged. We are now seeing 600 first-time buyers every week drawing down their mortgages.

That used to be 500. It is now 600. These are real people every single week. We are seeing more than 60,000 applicants having availed from the help-to-buy scheme. Over 9,000 home buyers have been approved to use the first home scheme. I reference that because, of course, that reduces the headline prices.

No, it does not.

It ensures that people can actually benefit from cash through the help-to-buy scheme and from an equity share in relation to their first home. We are also conscious when we look at how we are doing compared with other European countries that we now live in a country that has one of the strongest rates of home completion in the entire European Union. For every 1,000 people in Ireland, we are seeing 5.9 homes being completed. In the EU, that averages at 3.3. Home completions were up last year, at 36,280. That is up 20% on the previous year, and indeed represents the highest number of homes completed since 2011. We saw very positive housing commencement figures in December, with 3,065 homes commenced, which was more than the previous month. We will continue to see positive commencement figures. When look at planning permission, we see that momentum has picked up as well.

I tell the very young people that the Deputy referenced that we are seeing more homes being built, we are seeing more homes being commenced, we are seeing more homes being completed and we are seeing more people every week being able to buy their first home. In the CSO figures yesterday, we are seeing more housing transactions last year than the year before and first-time buyers making up a greater proportion of that. I agree with the Deputy that this is a continuing housing emergency. That is why we are reforming the planning laws and why we are increasing zoned land. We really need all our councils to get on board here right across the country and zone more land. I appeal to all political parties to assist in that. It is why we are rolling out unprecedented levels of funding for infrastructure, such as water and energy. It is why we are strengthening the Land Development Agency's powers. It is why we have brought in some of the strongest tenancy protections in Europe. It is why we are cutting the VAT rate to activate apartment building, and we are seeing some positive signs in relation to that. We have a hell of a lot more to do. Objectively, the figures that we see show progress in relation to housing supply. We have got to drive that on throughout 2026.

With respect, the Tánaiste just dodged the complete question. The question I asked him was about affordability. He talked about the first home scheme, for example. He knows that if the typical home in Dublin is €500,000, the first home scheme does not even apply any more. You cannot get it for €500,000 or more. You cannot get it in Greystones or Bray for the median home because the prices are €575,000 and €550,000. Let us get back to the crux of the issue. The point I have made to the Tánaiste - the CSO has said this very clearly, and I am sure the Tánaiste does not dispute it - is that house prices have gone up €100,000 in four years alone. In the past year, they have gone up €32,000. Is the Government listening to young people? Is it listening to young people who are telling me or my colleagues that their lives are being put on hold and that they have lost a decade as a result of Government policies on housing? The social fabric is breaking down. Some people see no future here because of affordability issues. I am asking the Tánaiste what the Government is going to do about it. Where the Government is taking this situation is that house prices are rising, rising and rising. The policies of the Government, such as the policy it voted for last night - it had promised it would not do so - to allow vulture funds to bid against these same people who want to purchase their homes, are doing one thing only, and that is pushing up house prices. Answer me this: how can the Tánaiste stand over Government policies that have seen house prices increase by €100,000? Does he recognise the impact this is having on young people across this State?

Hear, hear.

Of course I recognise that house prices are still far too high for far too many, but I also recognise that the figures - the very same set of figures the Deputy has quoted - show more home transactions last year than the year before, and more first-time buyers last year than the year before. They are real people too. They exist in the Deputy's community and mine. Six hundred people every single week are getting their keys for the first time to a first home. That is progress. We used to talk about that figure as 500 people a week. Yes, there is more to do in relation to that, but we cannot selectively quote the figures. The median is not the same as every and the Deputy accepts that too. The help-to-buy scheme has significantly helped people. It has helped more than 60,000 people. Sinn Féin has a policy to cut it by nearly two thirds. The first home scheme has helped 9,000 people. Sinn Féin wants to abolish that scheme as well. As recently as yesterday, 24 hours ago, the leader of Sinn Féin lodged her objection to 249 student beds in her constituency. When Sinn Féin comes in here, it is a housing emergency in the Dáil and it is a housing objection in the constituency.

Absolutely.

Is the Tánaiste still not going to answer about the €100,000? Is he just going to ignore that?

I call Deputy Eoghan Kenny.

Object, object, object. Object all the time.

Order, please. I call Deputy Eoghan Kenny.

Fine Gael objected on Cork City Council. I refer to a former Lord Mayor, Des Cahill. Go away and check it out. Deputies are coming in here making statements around councillors, but its Lord Mayor did the same in Cork.

The Deputy does not like the truth.

People in glass houses.