It is not lack of money that is preventing the State building the homes we need – it is catastrophic mismanagement by the Minister
Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan says it is disappointing but not surprising that the Government has yet again failed to meet its targets for the delivery of social and affordable homes.
Deputy O’Callaghan, who is the party’s Housing spokesperson, said:
“Of particular concern is the lack of progress on affordable purchase and cost rental delivery, which should be playing a key role in tackling the housing crisis.
“With just 1,757 affordable homes delivered in 2022 – only a tiny proportion of which were affordable purchase homes – the Government has failed miserably to meet its 4,100 target. This target was not nearly ambitious enough in the first place.
“This scale of under-delivery is inexcusable when you consider that Darragh O’Brien has left over €1 billion of his budget unspent since becoming Minister for Housing.
“It is clearly not lack of money that is stopping us building the homes we need. Rather, it is catastrophic mismanagement by the Minister.
“The Government’s failure to deliver social and affordable homes is taking a substantial toll. There are thousands of people facing eviction in the coming months, with only a handful of rental properties left on the market. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of thousands of adults stuck living in their childhood bedrooms and over 3,000 children in homeless emergency accommodation.
“There are a number of steps the Government could take to increase the delivery of affordable and social homes, such as scrapping the four-stage approval process and buying development land through compulsory purchase orders.
“The Government are constantly telling us that they are breaking delivery records and finally getting to grips with this crisis. In reality, they are failing miserably to live up to their own hype.
“The Minister needs to focus on delivering social and affordable housing at a pace that reflects the scale of the housing emergency.”
April 17, 2023