Labour call for debate on housing cuts

Deputies in the Dail are being called upon to convene a debate over recent housing cutbacks.

The Labour party want the Government to reverse the abolition of the first time buyers grant and the capped rent supplement for private tenants.

Labour's spokesperson on local government, Eamon Gilmore, insists home buyers and tenants have been seriously affected by the cuts.

He wants the motion of the debate to centre around the fact that house prices have increased by almost 100% since the election of the Fianna Fail and Progressive Democrat government in 1997.