Bertie launches personal Dáil attack on Higgins

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern reacted angrily to criticism of the Government’s record on housing by Deputy Joe Higgins yesterday, labelling the Socialist Party TD “a failed person” in an unusually personalised attack.

Mr Higgins had raised the newly-published report by Permanent TSB and the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), which detailed the massive increases in house prices over the last decade.

The study made “chilling reading for tens of thousands of young working people in need of homes”, Mr Higgins told the Dáil. “In March 1996, the average price of a home in Dublin was €82,000. This year, 10 years later, it is €384,000, an increase of €300,000. That represents a shocking €30,000 increase per year. Prices outside Dublin have increased pro rata.”