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?

Sentiment score: -0.13

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?

Sentiment score: 0.06

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

Sentiment score: -0.18