Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-18
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

You went into last year's election promising people an average €300,000 home in Dublin, but you could not tell us how you were going to pay for it or make it happen. We are all working to try to improve the housing situation. Here are some facts: planning permissions are up this year and last year; there have been more first-time buyers this year than last year; and there have been more home completions so far this year than last year. These are positive signs that the investment this State is making, coupled with the reforms in infrastructure delivery, are delivering more homes for our people. Yes, there is much more to do. That is why James Browne and I are working to have an equity finance scheme working with ISIF and Irish banks to make more loans available for small builders; it is why we are changing how water treatment facilities can be delivered by allowing developers to deliver them for small schemes in rural Ireland; it is why we have a new national planning framework; and it is why we brought forward an accelerating infrastructure task force with radical recommendations to deliver infrastructure in a faster way. Yes, there is a lot more work to do on housing but as we end 2025, it is a statement of fact that planning permissions are up, completions are up and the number of first-time buyers is up this year on last year.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-18