A damning report from the Housing Commission highlights how the Government rejected a long list of practical solutions to the housing crisis, according to Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan.
Deputy O’Callaghan, who is the party’s housing spokesperson, said:
“The report from the Housing Commission presents a scathing picture of this Government’s ‘ineffective decision making and reactive policy making’.
“The Housing Commission, which was tasked with analysing the housing crisis and potential solutions, found that Ireland had one of the highest levels of spending on housing with some of the poorest outcomes in Europe.
“The Government is clearly incapable of fixing a housing crisis that is of their own making.”
The report puts forward a number practical and well researched solutions to the crisis, including:
• Establishing a land price register.
• A much more prominent role for social and affordable housing.
• Ending Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) use as long-term solutions.
• An end to the privatisation of social housing.
•Establishing a publicly available register of rents.
Deputy O’Callaghan added:
“These are all solutions that have been put forward by myself and my colleagues over the past number of years, only to be rejected by this Government.
“For example, in October 2021, I brought forward the Property Services (Land Price Register) Bill to bring much needed transparency to land prices and help address speculation and land hoarding. Unsurprisingly, the Government rejected this bill.
“The Minister for Housing and the Taoiseach have been scrambling to defend the indefensible, simultaneously praising the report while ignoring its findings. They are fooling no one.
“The report states bluntly that ‘inconsistency undermines confidence’ – and this Government has inconsistency in spades.”
May 22, 2024