Sinn Féin has accused Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien of attempting to spin the findings of a report which was highly critical of the Government’s housing policies.
Sinn Féin's housing spokesperson Pearse Doherty and Mr O’Brien clashed in the Dáil on Thursday over the issue.
The report, which was leaked earlier this week, contained a number of reforms following an examination of the Government’s housing policies.
The Housing Commission's report is a damning criticism of the government's housing policy, and it is further evidence that their plan is not working.
Only a Sinn Féin-led government, with a housing plan focused on delivering tens of thousands of affordable homes for working… pic.twitter.com/BgLiju2AoE— Pearse Doherty (@PearseDoherty) May 23, 2024
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Outlining 83 recommendations, the Commission said the State has an opportunity to change policy to improve the lives of citizens.
It said it had a “major concern” with the country’s housing deficit and urged emergency action coupled with a “step-change” increase in supply.
Mr Doherty pressed Mr O’Brien on the report and accused him of attempting to spin its findings as an “endorsement” of the Government’s housing plan.
“It is not credible, as you’ve tried to do to claim, that the majority of the Commission’s recommendations are being progressed by your Government,” he added.
“Are you trying to suggest that the Government Commission didn’t know what they were talking about?”
Mr Doherty said the report is a “damning indictment” of the Government’s “failure”, particularly in terms of affordable housing.
“This is just some of what they have to say – ‘systemic failure, ineffective decision-making, reactive policymaking all undermine an affordability’,” he added.
“That’s you, Minister, that they’re talking about in that report, just in case you didn’t realise.
“The Housing Commission concluded that you, your decisions, your policy, your government made rents go up and made houses more expensive.
“Sin é. Full stop. That’s what they’ve concluded.
“The report states that Ireland has the opportunity to change policy and I couldn’t agree more, but after 12 years with Fine Gael in government, supported in the main by Fianna Fáil through the majority of those years, change will not come from these parties that created the crisis.
“The only change that will come in housing is with the change in government.”
Mr Doherty called for the Government to schedule time in the Dáil next week for a debate in relation to the findings of the report.
Mr O’Brien replied: “I will debate you up and down, left, right and centre on housing, because we have a plan.
“If you had a plan that one could debate and analyse, you might ask your housing spokesperson why did he say publicly over 14 months ago that he will publish the Sinn Féin housing plan and he has not done so yet.
“What would you replace the supports that we’ve brought in for first-time buyers?”
Labour leader Ivana Bacik described the findings as a “searing critique” of the Government’s housing policy.
“Findings which are damning, in fact, of the Housing for All plan, a plan which you stood over again this week,” she said.
“As you put it on Tuesday night, you said any plan worth its salt has review mechanisms built in. You said that’s what the Commission’s report was, but it’s not enough just to have a review mechanism.
“Clearly, it’s also important that you accept when the review is scathing and that you undertake to act upon the recommendations and findings in the review.
“The Commission report makes clear that Housing for All is not working. The Commission has called for a radical strategic reset for emergency action to address that massive shortfall of homes, over a quarter of a million homes, which are so badly needed for communities, families, individuals across the country.”
She called on the Minister to publish his department’s revised housing targets, to which Mr O’Brien said the new targets will be published in the autumn.
He added: “Last month alone, we saw 18,000 new homes commenced, breaking all records there.
“We’ve a significant target this year of over 34,500, and I intend for us to exceed that this year and to exceed it substantially.”
