Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that he “hasn’t thrown in the towel“ on housing and will not yet accept that young people will be worse off than their parents.
He made the comments to the new Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns as she used her first Leaders Questions slot to describe the current housing situation as a “catastrophe”.
“I'm a member of the first-ever generation who will be worse off than our parents,” she said.
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“This didn't happen by accident. The political choices made by successive governments have resulted in the aspirations and dreams of an entire generation to be either diminished or destroyed.
“We are now at the bottom third of EU countries when it comes to homeownership.”
Ms Cairns said that young people’s adult lives were “on hold” because they could not afford to buy or rent a home. She said that there was a “lack of hope, despair and a fear of the future” when it comes to housing.
She added: “[It is a fear] you will never be able to afford to do what your own parents did on just one income, own a modest home.
“Fine Gael has been in government for almost my entire adult life. Your party first promised to address what was a housing crisis in 2014. Nine years later, it's an unprecedented housing disaster.”
In response, Mr Varadkar said that he was “deeply concerned” about the falling level of homeownership and that he was “determined that this is the year in which we should turn the corner on the housing crisis”.
He said: “I heard you say that you believe that you will be the first generation of young people in a long time that are worse off than their parents.
“But I haven't thrown in the towel on that. That will only be the case if we don’t turn the corner on the housing crisis and on homeownership.
“I believe we will.”
Mr Varadkar added that Ireland is doing “much better” on other things that “young people experience”. This includes, he said, “employment issues”, higher education and “personal freedoms”.
He also stated there were 16,000 first-time buyers last year.
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