The Government’s housing plan has “failed” and housing targets are “a fiction”, opposition politicians have said.
Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien and senior opposition politicians argued over whether the Housing for All plan was working and whether there was enough “urgency” in tackling the housing crisis.
Mr O’Brien said that since the coalition Government took office in 2020, the number of new homes being built had almost doubled.
He said that there would be “high 30,000s” to 40,000 homes delivered by the end of the year and said that figures published on Thursday showed the highest quarter-three home completions on record.
The Dáil row during Leaders’ Questions came after new figures showed there were 8,939 new dwellings completed in the third quarter of the year.
According to these and previous Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures, there have been 21,664 new dwellings completed so far this year, down on 22,521 completions during the same nine-month period last year.
Sinn Féin’s finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty said it was “delusional” and “not credible” to say that 19,000 more homes would be built in the next 12 weeks.
He said that the housing crisis was “out of control” and home ownership had “collapsed” among young people.
“Minister, do you accept that there is no chance, despite all of your spin, all of your huffing and puffing, that your target of 40,000 completions this year is simply not deliverable, or are you going to continue with the delusion that your plan is working despite all of the evidence to the contrary?”
Mr O’Brien accused Mr Doherty of taking facts to “twist them and turn them”, adding: “I’m going to give you the truth on this.”
He said that the Government would hit its Housing for All targets for this year, to build 33,450 new homes, 9,300 of which are social and 6,400 of which are affordable.
“I’ve said consistently that we’re going to exceed that (overall) target and I’m still confidently predicting, and you will be disappointed and your colleagues in Sinn Féin also, that we will be in the high 30,000s to early 40,000 this year.
“We will achieve our social housing new build targets this year, we will exceed our affordable housing targets this year.”
A row broke out in relation to housing objections, in which Mr Doherty accused Mr O’Brien of “deliberately misleading the Dáil”.
Mr O’Brien replied in Irish “the angry man is back again” to which Mr Doherty said: “It’s OK for you, you might own your own home.”
Mr Doherty said that the CSO figures “cut right through all of your bluster, all of your spin” and show that less housing has been delivered in the first nine months of this year compared to last year.
“You’ve told this House over and over again that the housing target and output would be close to 40,000 units. That is not achievable.”
Mr O’Brien said that since the Government had come into power, 125,000 new homes have been built, when Mr Doherty said “it’s delusion”.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said that housing was the single biggest issue in Ireland and was holding the country back.
She said the Government’s plan had “failed” by any objective standard and that the Government’s housing targets are “a fiction”.
“Rents are up, evictions are up, house prices are up, and most worryingly, the number of people in homelessness is up.”
She said building more social and affordable homes was the solution, and would take adults out of childhood bedrooms and families out of emergency accommodation.
“Last year, we put it to you that at least 50,000 new builds would be needed each year to meet demand. Some of your colleagues scoffed at that at the time, but you have now admitted that Housing for All targets are too low to meet the real level of need.”
She said that the housing minister arguing that the housing crisis was an inherited problem was “a bit like ‘the dog ate my homework'”.
“You need to be dealing with it with more urgency and more ambition,” she said.
